River
by The Smoose
Summary: Movie-verse. Science may be holding his heart together, but it can still break. Chapter 13 edited slightly to include more depression  Y .
1. Simply Irresistible

River

Ok, so the original plan was to write this all out and then post like once a week...but I figured that this is gonna be (hopefully) real fecking long, and I'm not gonna painstakingly carve out x amount of chapters for the first few to bomb, so I'm gonna see how this one goes and then who knows? I have already started the next chapter (and, shockingly, my brain has decided to mind fuck me by making me write the FINAL chapter AND the first chapter of the next series before I even wrote the first one...what kind of masochistic frame of mind is that?!?) and I hope this one is well received. I do have some fairly major plans for this. This was all created with a very tenuous link between Saw V and *prepares for abuse* Twilight. You won't see it til the very last chapters, and even then you probably won't see it cos you'll need to have seen both films/at least read New Moon.

Also: this is totally AU. Well, not totally, seeing as about 99% of the first chapter is taken straight from the movie, but seeing as I know extremely little of the comics, this all stems from the movie. And I'm not a great writer for fight scenes, so if you're hoping for shitloads of action, back away now. There will be a fight scene later, but yeah.

Song of the Day: Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistible

* * *

There weren't many things that made Tony Stark uncomfortable or speechless. In fact, it was extremely difficult to even fluster him slightly. And yet somehow, here he was, scotch in hand, pretty much bamboozled by the mysterious, red headed, backless dress wearing bombshell not fifty feet away. He didn't even acknowledge the S.H.I.E.L.D agent properly. Extremely X rated scenes were steamrolling through his brain as he mumbled some offhand replies to the man's one sided conversation.

He was vaguely aware that Agent Coulson was expecting an answer to whatever he'd just finished saying – something about a meeting – when the subject of his smouldering stare turned slightly to greet someone. He nearly choked on his scotch.

"Mr. Stark? Did you hear-"

"Yeah! Yes," he cleared his throat and held his hand out, which Coulson took, still staring at who now turned out to be Pepper. "tell you what, you got it, you're absolutely right." He put his scotch down behind him. "Well, uh…I'm gonna go to my assistant, and we'll…make a date." He vanished before the agent could say another word, walking swiftly towards Pepper.

"You look fantastic, I didn't recognise you." He said loudly as he approached her. She turned from the couple she had been chatting to, wide eyed when she saw who was talking to her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised and also, he noticed, happily.

"Just avoiding government agents." He retorted with a smirk.

"Are you by yourself?" she questioned. He would have thought that to be an odd question, but his brain was currently in gawk mode and refused to deviate.

"Where'd you get that dress?" he gave her the universal 'up 'n' down look' of appreciation, to which she smirked.

"Oh, it was a birthday present, from you actually." She was extremely entertained by the serious concentration face he was sporting, trying to maintain decent conversation in favour of his usual 'How you doin'?' chat up lines.

"Wow, I've got great taste." He said modestly.

"Yeah."

"So…you wanna dance?" such a simple request threw Pepper off track for a second.

"Oh, no, thank you." Yeah, like a rejection was gonna stop Tony Stark.

"Alright, come on." He grabbed her hand and led her away from the rest of the crowd, drawing a few looks from people around them. They stopped in the god damned centre of the dance floor and he spun her into his arms, instantly taking the lead as Pepper smiled awkwardly at the other dance couples doing a slow waltz. He sensed her tension, and pulled back slightly. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Oh, no," she said, maybe more than slightly sarcastically. "I always forget to wear deodorant and dance with my boss in front of everyone that I work with in a dress with no back." He fingers drummed nervously on his suited arm that he had wrapped around her waist.

He looked her in the eyes (well, near enough) and smiled slightly. "You look great, you smell great-"

"Oh, God."

"-but I could fire you if that'd take the edge off?"

She fought a laugh. "I actually don't think you could tie your shoes without me."

Tony smiled. He didn't think so either. He wasn't about to tell her that though. "Huh, I'd make it a week."

"Oh really? What's you're Social Security number?"

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

"…five…"

She had to really fight the impending burst of laughter with that. "Five? Right. You're missing just a couple of digits."

"The other eight?" he shrugged as she let out a giggle. "I've got you for the other eight."

Ok, funny moment officially over, that was almost…affectionate. She caught him staring at her and they locked eyes for a couple of seconds. There was something different in the way he was looking at her, something that couldn't just be the dress. They stopped dancing. There appeared to be an elephant in the room, one that Pepper was desperately trying to ignore as it jumped up and down, waving it's trunk around and she felt dozens of sets of eyes boring into her.

"How about a little air?"

OhthankGod.

"Yes, I need some air." She agreed and he led her out, still holding her hand.

* * *

"That was totally weird." She said as soon as they were outside. The brisk night air gave her some relief from the butterflies that were flapping around in her stomach.

"It was totally harmless." he tried to shrug it off, his hands fidgeting with each other, knowing full well she was spot on.

"It was totally not harmless, by the way." She was getting as flustered as he had been earlier and she started babbling. "Everyone…everyone I work with."

He had to try and calm her down. "I think you lost objectivity, we just danced."

"No, it wasn't just the dance, you don't understand because you're you, and everybody knows exactly who you are and how you are with girls, and all of that which is completely fine," she took a quick breath and ploughed on "but then me, you know, you're my boss, and I'm dancing with you-"

"I really don't think it was taken like that-" He tried to cut her off.

"No because then it makes me look like the one who's trying to-"

"I just think you're over stating that's all-"

"And then we're here, and I'm…wearing this ridiculous dress, and then we were dancing like that and…" she finally ran out of things to say and just stared at him. He stared right back at her, taking her all in. How had he never realised just how irresistible she looked? She always looked good, but tonight…she'd made him leave half a glass of scotch for God's sake!

"There's nothing ridiculous about that dress." He said softly. "It's the least ridiculous dress I've ever seen on anyone." He gave his 'up 'n' down' look again as he said it, inching closer to her along the low wall they were leaning against. Her breath hitched. There was barely half a foot between them. He moved his arm to graze his fingers across the inside of her right wrist. He felt her pulse quicken and she grabbed his hand. He chuckled at her reaction.

"That tickles." She mumbled. She saw the arc glowing faintly through his white shirt and lightly traced around the edge of it before placing her whole hand over the silk covered metal.

"So does that." He covered her hand with his larger one. They locked eyes again, and Tony moved in for the kill.

* * *

**TBC.**

Yeah, I'm evil. What did you think? I'm seriously debating whether I should go down the movie route or go for the scene that wasn't. I have to add that I wrote this whilst mildly inebriated and full of a cold, so I was pretty out of it. And for the record, writing out the Tony/Pepper stuff from the movie? Yeah, that shit took FOREVER. Stop-start-stop-start-rewind-start. Ugh.


	2. Want To

Do you know how many times I've re-written this? Seven. That's right, SEVEN. And that's just the first section! I was planning to post once a week, but I figure I need to get this done before the next film comes out (great time to start an epic long fic Smoose, nice one) cos...well, PLANS! Plus, it'd be kinda shitty competing against all the IM2 fics whilst still writing this. And you may notice, I am TOTALLY screwing with the time lines after the "I am Iron Man" stuff. Know why? Cos it's my fanfic, that's why.

And, after much deliberation (and I mean *much* after changing it seven bleeding times [and then twice whilst editing]):

Song of the Day: Sugarland – Want To

Oh, probably should have put this in the first chapter as well, but meh, I own nothing but the mistakes and the sandbox I'm letting the characters play in. Enjoy!

* * *

"_That tickles." She mumbled. She saw the Arc glowing faintly through his white shirt and lightly traced around the edge of it before placing her whole hand over the silk covered metal. _

"_So does that." He covered her hand with his larger one. They locked eyes again, and Tony moved in for the kill._

Their lips touched. Tony's Arc vibrated softly, causing her to pull back nervously. He seemed as shocked as she did, which didn't help.

"Tony, what-"

"Wait." He interrupted her, pressing their hands tighter to his chest and pulling her back to him. "Just…just let me try something."

"I really don't think we-" her argument died on his lips. He pushed her back into the low wall slightly to put more force behind the kiss and Pepper braced herself with her free hand. The Arc buzzed again, more violently this time, but after a few seconds died down to nothing. Tony smiled against her mouth and stepped back slightly.

"Wow…that was a rush." He said through heavy breaths. Pepper rested her forehead against his, eyes still closed.

"What the hell was that?" she whispered. Tony released her hand on his chest and snaked both his arms around her waist, linking the fingers together at her bare back.

"Well…I think…and don't over-react now, but I'm pretty sure you just gave me a heart attack." He was still smiling when Pepper's eyes snapped open.

…the fuck?

"I did what to who now?" she tried to break out of his hold but he didn't let her. "Are you serious?"

"Hey, I said don't over-react." He held her firmly to him as she pushed against his arms. "I'm fine. It was only a teeny tiny one."

She stared disbelievingly at him. "How can you say that? You just had a fucking heart attack and you're acting like it's nothing?"

"Because it _is_ nothing." He said. "I'm still standing aren't I? And it's not like I haven't been through worse in the last few months is it?"

"Yeah but…" she looked panicked. "God, this is too weird. I can't…" she stared at the lapels on his jacket for a few seconds before grabbing them firmly and pulling him in for another kiss. He had to catch himself on the wall behind her, pressing them closer together. Pepper's hands moved to the nape of his neck and her fingers played with the short hairs there, bringing a delightfully sexy whimper from Tony. He shivered as she continued and wrapped his arms around her body, trailing kisses along her jaw line and towards her ear, only stopping when he felt her fingers trembling rather than twirling.

"Pepper?" he pulled her back to arms length and noted the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "Hey, calm down." He said softly and rubbed his thumb gently along her stomach where his hands had landed. "It's ok. We're ok."

"Tony, we just..." she couldn't even bring herself to say what they had just done. "We just crossed some pretty major boundaries." She pushed away from him and began walking back towards the entrance back into the building. "Everything's changed."

"Not if you don't want it to." He called after her. She stopped walking but didn't turn around. "Do you want it to?"

Seconds passed that felt like hours.

"No." she whispered and walked through the door, leaving Tony propped up against the wall, hands shoved morosely in his pockets. He sighed heavily.

"Then neither do I."

* * *

_Two months later_

"If I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She'd be a wreck. She'd always be worrying I was going to die, yet so proud of the man I've become. She'd be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more crazy about me, tell me you never think about that night." He turned to face Pepper, a smug, yet cautious smile playing at his lips. Pepper stayed totally professional, smoothing out the few wrinkles left on his blazer.

"What night?" she asked without looking at him.

"You know." She could practically feel his eyes boring into her skull but refused to give him the satisfaction. She began fussing with the square in his breast pocket.

"You mean the night we agreed we were never going to bring up again so we could keep everything normal?" she still wasn't looking at him.

"You." He corrected. "You said we'd never talk about it again, I agreed to no such thing." Her head snapped up, eyes filled with indignation.

"Tony!"

"Pepper?"

"Thirty seconds Mr. Stark." A member of the press crew poked his head around the door. Tony gritted his teeth to stop himself snapping at the young man.

"Will that be all Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked, patting down his pocket square as if the conversation hadn't happened. He snorted.

"For now." He said, not totally un-threatening.

Pepper tutted and turned to watch the conference on the flat screen across the room.

She watched him step up to the podium.

She watched him joke with the reporters, although silently praying he did as he had promised and stuck to the cards.

She watched as one very familiar face asked him a question, bewildered as to why no one stopped her, and watched as Tony completely botched the answer and Rhodey stepped in, whispering to him to stick to the God-damn cards.

"Stop digging at get out of the hole Tony." She hissed

And then...

"The truth is...I am Iron Man."

She watched as her workload increased a thousand fold.

* * *

Tony was in the dog house. Big time. He felt nervous in his own home and was seriously beginning to regret begging, pleading and reasoning with Pepper that it was not only more convenient, but safer for her to stay at his place, considering the mess he had landed her in. She only finally took his advice when she awoke in the middle of the night to find a photographer dangling inches from her bedroom window, leaning over from a tree branch. Not the best way to get her to move in with him but he'd take what he could get.

The only issue now was that she wasn't speaking to him. Well, she wasn't _not_ speaking to him, she answered him when he spoke to her, as long as it was strictly relevant, but she wasn't starting up any conversation either, so he often found himself sat alongside her on the sofa, completely in silence as she tapped away on her laptop or took phone calls from various media sources, or the occasional S.H.I.E.L.D calls coming through a specially patched feed via Jarvis.

About a week into the move he couldn't take it anymore, he practically begged for forgiveness, apologising in five different languages, one of which she wasn't sure _was _ a language, sending her flowers in the shape of _'I'm Sorry'_ and offering her such a large raise in salary she had no choice but to forgive him, if only to stop him going any further.

One night, three weeks after the press conference, Tony was in his workshop under the hood of his new Cobra, the old one being a tad dented, trying to bump up the horsepower to the specs of its predecessor. He straightened up when his music suddenly stopped and turned to see Pepper walking towards him, casually dressed in jeans and deep burgundy jumper.

"Ok, I've managed to get you a week of peace for Christmas and New Years, but after that you've got to meet with the Minister of Defence, they want to talk to you about your 'new weapon', and Fury wants to bring you in to brief you, again, although I don't know _why_ they think they'd need to go to all this extra trouble to keep you in check." She smirked at him. Although she wouldn't tell him, she'd forgiven him completely for his slip up...until she saw the sheer amount of crap she'd be stuck with sorting through, so she coupled the smirk with a 'Don't-Even-Think-I've-Totally-Forgiven-You-You-Iron-Clad-Douche' look.

"Very funny Potts." He mumbled, also smiling. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you liked berating me over small details that happened nearly a month ago."

"Oh darn, you've caught me." she said, her voice laced with sarcasm. "I start each day wondering and hoping that you'll do something ridiculously stupid just so I can tell you off for it later and add to my already overflowing stack of evil paperwork." She tossed a folder onto his extremely junk-filled work station. "Those need signing and returning to me within the hour." She turned on her heel and stalked back upstairs.

Tony dropped the spanner he was holding. He'd do one better, the least he could do after all the trouble he'd caused was sign a few documents. He rushed his signatures, not needing to read what he was autographing, and sped after Pepper.

He found her sitting on top of the kitchen counter, swinging her sock-clad feet side to side, staring at the microwave. He walked silently up behind her and poked her with the folder, making her whip around.

"I signed the stuff." He held up the folder and plonked it onto the countertop. She looked astonished.

"Wow, to what do I owe the honour?" she picked up the folder to confirm that he had actually signed everything she'd needed him to. Tony shrugged.

"Well...ya know, I feel kinda shitty for not thinking you'd have all this to deal with after I opened my mouth, and yes, shock horror, Tony Stark thinks about other people...after the fact, but still." He smiled playfully and then glanced at the microwave. "You shouldn't eat microwave food Potts, there's no nourishment in it."

"Coming from the man who's often seen living off P, B&J sandwiches?" she jumped down from the counter and walked over to the now beeping machine. "And anyway, it's not ready made, I froze some curry and rice I made the other night and I was merely heating it up." She gingerly pulled the hot plastic carton from the microwave and placed it on a tray. "Want some? I made enough to feed the five thousand."

Tony walked around to her side of the counter. "I didn't know you could cook. Damn," he took a long, deep sniff. "that actually smells like heaven. Pile me some up." He wiped his greasy hands on his wife-beater, and quickly realised that did jack shit. After he'd thoroughly washed his hands, he grabbed two plates and sets of cutlery out of the respective cupboards while she set about defrosting another carton. He stood there slightly awkwardly as the timer ticked down the seconds.

"Go." She wafted a hand at him. "Change and sit down, I'll bring it over to you."

"Oh." He stepped back slightly. "Uh, table or couch?"

The question threw her slightly. "Well, I was going to take mine to my room and watch Friends, but if you wanna sit and talk, or-"

"Oh," he said again. "no, don't worry, don't let me bug-"

"_Or_," she pressed as the microwave beeped again and she served up his portion. "we can sit in the lounge and do both?"

His smile was her answer.

**TBC.**

Ok, so this was one son-ma-bitch to write, but it's amazing what you can do with three Jagerbomb's, two large bottles of blue WKD, no TV/phone/internet and only six hours. So I'm posting now before I look at it again tomorrow and want to fiddle with it. In all seriousness, I've written over 2,000 words, and I dislike fics that go over 1,00 in general, so this is pushing it for me. Plus, the next chapter's probably gonna be even longer. Can't wait =/


	3. Become

Ok, so I boobed up again. For the sake of my sanity, let's pretend I put the date at the end of the last chapter as well as the beginning of this one. I was going to attempt smut with this chapter, but I had to cut it out for two reasons, 1). The fic took a different direction as I was writing it and me writing it the way I had planned would have meant a big long tedious bit of nonsense in the middle (not that I've managed to cut that out entirely). 2). My internet provider decided to implode or something during the weekend and the only way I could finish and upload this was when I was with my Nan at her computer course, and there's no way in hell I'm writing smut in a room of thirty people and my Grandmother. Sorry, that's just the way I roll.

Oh, and I suggest if you don't already know the song, YouTube it! It's a beyond awesome tune. Cannot wait for the new album! And you know what new album means? TOUR! COME TO THE UK!!!

Song of the Day: Goo Goo Dolls - Become

* * *

_December 22nd_

"Oh my God, how have I never tasted this before?" Tony said around a mouthful of Pepper's nuked curry. He was shovelling it down as fast as he could. "S'mafing."

"I'll take that as a compliment." She smirked at him as he threw her a 'no shit' look. "I figured since I've been commissioned to living here, I may as well make sure there's real food in the house, and no, PopTarts don't count as real food." She cut him off before he could interject.

"Oh they so do!" he protested. "Chocolate is a vegetable, _and_ there's pastry in them. That's like a three course meal in one go. And it probably tastes better. Although now I've tasted your cooking, Potts, you no longer do anything _but_ this."

"Oh wow, from PA to cook, every girl's dream. Jarvis, pull up a random episode of Friends would ya?" the AI obliged, opening the wall opposite the couch to reveal the beyond-larger-than-necessary flat screen.

"Hey, you'd be the Head Chef." He said normally, having snarfed down the entire contents of the plastic tray and was now digging his finger into the corners to grab the last morsels. "And I'd be your Su Chef. That means I'd be _under_ you." She rolled her eyes at his innuendo.

"As much as the idea does appeal to me, I think I'm gonna stick with being your assistant, however much the thought of you actually eating real food makes my life easier." She stood up and held her hand out for his tray. "I'm gonna go and get comfortable, you want me to put you another in the microwave?"

"You're a saint Miss Potts." He handed her his now squeaky clean tray and beamed at her.

"Tell me about it, Mr. Stark." She winked at him and sauntered out of the lounge.

Three hours, six episodes of Friends and four different curries' later, Tony was feeling extremely full and, for the first time in a long time, genuinely relaxed. He was vaguely aware of something hilarious happening on the TV, only because he was staring at the person that it was affecting. Pepper was pretty much creasing up with laughter, which in turn was making him chuckle.

"This can't be the first time you've seen these?" Tony asked eventually. Pepper regained enough composure to shake her head, coughing slightly.

"No, of course not. I have them all on DVD, but they're still funny after the fiftieth time." And as if to prove her point, she set off giggling again as Monica danced around with a Turkey on her head, complete with party hat and sunglasses. The credits began to roll and she raised her arms above her head and stretched, giving Tony a generous flash of skin, thanks to the tank top she had donned. "Well, I think I'm going to turn in for the night, thanks for keeping me company." She smiled warmly at him and then got up off the couch, heading for her room.

'_Right,'_ Tony thought to himself, _'now or never Stark.'_

"Pepper?" he called to her before she disappeared down the hall and she turned back to him.

"Yeah?" she leant against the wall and folded her arms across her stomach, waiting for him to continue. He stood up and walked over to her.

"Uh, well, I was just wondering, what you were doing for Christmas exactly?" the question threw her slightly.

"Oh, er...well, apart from trying to deal with the aftermath of your little confession, not a lot. Were there some functions you wanted to attend? Let me get my BlackBerry." She started back to where she had hung her suit jacket earlier but he stopped her.

"No, no, nothing like that."

"Then what?" she looked at him expectantly and he began fidgeting with his hands. She grabbed hold of them to stop him. "Tony, what's wrong?"

"Nothing...I was just wondering...do you wanna spend Christmas and New Years here?" he sent her a nervous smirk.

"Well, I do kinda live here for the time being." She reminded him. He winced slightly.

"I meant primarily here...with me. Just us two. Together."

Insert awkward silence here.

"Oh." She said, letting go of his hands.

"I mean, unless you have other plans. Do you?"

"Do I?"

"Have other plans?"

"Oh." she said again. "No, no plans."

"Great." He smiled at her.

"Tony, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not?" his face fell slightly. He knew she might say that but he'd hoped she wouldn't.

"Tony-"

"Wait. Look, you said it yourself; I've shoved a lot of crap on you this Christmas and what have you done in return? Gotten me a vacation from the madness while you sit there and deal. Well, I won't have it." He folded his arms and smiled smugly at her.

"You won't have it?"

"No." He said. She still looked uncomfortable. "Pepper, it's nothing major. Just two friends spending the holidays together. It's completely innocent. I promise I'll be on my best behaviour. Plus," he winked at her. "you get to try my cooking."

She was chewing on her bottom lip, considering what he was saying, and then sighed when he pulled a puppy-dog face. "Ugh, fine, but only because you cooking is like the seventh sign of the apocalypse." She smiled as he beamed back at her. "Will that be all Mr. Stark?"

"That will be all Miss. Potts."

* * *

_December 23__rd_

Pepper awoke to the smell of stuffing. She found this odd for two reasons, one being that it was two days before those smells usually had any business being near her nostrils, and the fact that it was 7:30am. Confused and now slightly hungry, she got out of bed and made her way down the halls to the source of the smell.

Tony was stood in the larger of the two kitchens in his home which was connected to an even larger dining room, barefooted in boxers and a grey t-shirt and, by what little Pepper could see, has his hand up a turkey's bottom. Now, this was a funny sight to begin with, but what caused Pepper to have to grab the nearest chair to support herself was the sheer quantity of violent profanities streaming from Tony's mouth.

"Son of a- why won't you go in you mother- arg!" he retracted his hand from the turkey's bottom and all the stuffing he'd just tried to ram up it fell out. "Fuck." He shook his hand and stuffing flew everywhere.

"Could you make much more mess? You are such a guy." Tony span round as Pepper spoke and ended up flinging stuffing at her. "Gee, thanks."

"Aww shit, sorry." He grabbed a dish towel and handed it to her and then ran his own stuffing-covered hand under the tap. She dabbed the specks off her tank top and arm.

"What are you even doing?" she asked him. He looked at her in an 'isn't it obvious?' way. "I mean, I can see what you're doing but why at this hour of the morning? Two days before needed as well."

"I'm trying my mother's recipe." He said, taking the dish towel from her and drying his own arm. "Well, her method at least, I don't have the exact recipe for the stuffing but it tastes pretty much the same." He nodded to the bowl sitting next the manhandled turkey.

"Wow, you mean you made that yourself?" she seemed genuinely shocked. He smiled at her.

"I told you I could cook. How do you think I survived before you came along?" he winked at her. "My mom used to prepare the make the stuffing from scratch from her own recipe two days before Christmas so the flavour was released enough. I don't have the recipe but I remember how it used to taste. It was the best thing I ever ate all year..." he dropped his head and smiled to himself. Pepper reached out and placed her hand on top of his.

"I'm sure it'll taste fantastic...assuming you get it in the turkey." This made him laugh and he gave her hand a quick squeeze before releasing it.

"Thanks." he turned back to the turkey and cracked his knuckles. "Well, here goes round two." He lifted the turkey and began shoving stuffing up its rear end again. Pepper walked around the counter she had been leaning on and watched him, yet again, fail.

"You know, it helps when you don't fight gravity." She smirked at him. "Would have thought a billionaire genius like you would have figured that one out by himself."

He plopped the turkey down on the countertop and mumbled something that sounded like 'I was just testing you' and, after a few minutes, managed to fill it with stuffing.

"A-ha! Victory!" he raised a fist and, once again, flicked stuffing all over Pepper. "And that's what happens to people who doubt my methods."

Pepper reached for the dish towel again and hit him with it. "Oh yeah, all fear the great and powerful Iron Man with his Stuffing Gun 'o' Death."

"Catchy title. That's not a bad idea though." He took the other end of the dish towel and wiped of the last of the stuffing from his arm before balling it up and throwing it onto the counter. "Not to blow my own trumpet-"

"Like that's ever stopped you before."

"-but you will probably die and go to heaven when you eat it, I'm just that naturally talented."

"Yeah, that wasn't blowing your own trumpet at all."

"Well you could always blow it for me?"

Pepper laughed and touched his arm lightly, making it twitch. "I'm not sure you could handle my rhythm."

Tony leaned forward slightly. "Well, maybe we should test that theory." Pepper placed her hand on his chest, holding him back.

"Maybe when you don't smell so much like stuffing and turkey ass."

Tony sighed but remained where he was. "You are such a tease Miss. Potts."

"Pardon me for not getting a kick out of the smell of stuffing and turkey ass."

"You mean my stank isn't doing anything for you?" he pretended to look shocked, making Pepper giggle.

"Sorry Mr. Stark, it's just one of those things."

He leaned in further. "So if I showered we'd be fine?"

Pepper smiled and moved her mouth nearer his ear. "I still know where you've had your hand." She stepped around him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, trapping her between his body and the counter, his hands either side of her on the tile surface. "Tony?"

"I just wanna try something." He said, not a hint of amusement in his face.

"Remember what happened the last time you said that?" she said. She could feel his breath on her lips.

"Well then," he lifted a corner of his mouth. "let's just call this scientific research." And he closed the distance between their lips. Immediately his Reactor hummed, not as violently as the first time they had kissed and for a shorter amount of time, but it still made him smile. Pepper's eyes shot open and she ended the kiss. "I'm fine." He said straight away. "Don't worry, just a hiccup." He raised his hand and pushed a lock of Pepper's hair behind her ear.

"It's still weird." She said, staring at the faint blue glow in his chest.

"But not as bad as last time. I think I'm getting used to it." She looked up at him then, and she knew he wasn't talking about the buzzing. She touched his Arc softly and then slowly moved her hands up his chest and around his neck, bringing him in for another kiss, but stopped short of his lips.

"Maybe we should run a few more tests, just to be sure?"

* * *

It took a lot to scare Tony Stark. He could probably count on one hand the amount of times this particular emotion had befallen him.

When his parents had died and he'd realised he was alone, that had scared him.

When the bag had been pulled off his head in the cave and he'd been presented with several heavily armed thugs, that had scared him. A lot.

But now, as he lay in his bed next to a sleeping Pepper, his arm wrapped around her middle and his nose buried in her hair, he waited for the little voice in his head to kick in and tell him to get up and run like it had with so many women.

But it didn't.

And that truly petrified him.

**TBC.

* * *

**

Oh my Jesus, this was SUCH a pain in the arse. Yet another chapter I re-wrote a million and a half times. I hope you all enjoyed it though. Drama drama drama!


	4. Ghost Of Me

Yeah, this chapter is a little vocab-heavy. See, when I get ideas of stuff, my brain gives me like scenes of how things play out, and it usually only gives me the very beginning and the very end, so I have to pad out the in-between bits, which sucks tbh. At any rate, I finally managed to write a chapter without having to delete the majority of it several dozen times, only twice this time! So major props to The Smoose (Y)

Oh, and if you didn't listen to me on the last chapter about YouTube-ing the song, DO IT NOW. In fact, go buy the album. Seriously, now. Go. Hey, you there, still reading, go! It rules all things ever. Daughtry = 3

Song of the Day: Daughtry – Ghost of Me

* * *

_December 23__rd__ cont._

_She touched his Arc softly and then slowly moved her hands up his chest and around his neck, bringing him in for another kiss, but stopped short of his lips._

"_Maybe we should run a few more tests, just to be sure?"_

_Their lips connected again, more forceful than before. Tony pushed Pepper against the counter and deepened it, bringing his hands to her hips. Pepper moaned softly and entwined her fingers in his hair while her tongue poked at his lips seeking entrance to his mouth, which he gave without hesitation. _

_With distinctive ease, he bent slightly and lifted Pepper onto the counter, mouths still connected. His mind registered the sound of the bowl of stuffing falling to the ground but he found that he didn't really care. He felt her fingers move from his head, down his chest and to the hem of his t-shirt, and he lifted his arms to help her strip him. As the shirt came up over his eyes, it got stuck in several places at once, effectively blinding him. After a few seconds of struggling, he managed to get his arms loose and pulled the offending item of clothing off his head, expecting to see a hopefully also-half-naked-Pepper. When the image of an injured and bleeding Obadiah Stane swap into view, however, his heart almost stopped._

"_What the fu-" Obadiah's fist connecting with his jaw stopped him mid sentence. Tony fell to the floor, his head hitting the wooden cupboard at the bottom of the small island in the middle of the kitchen. He tried to get back up but a large metal foot on his chest prevented him even moving an inch. He looked up to see the full form or Iron Monger looming over him. The echo of Stane's voice boomed over the metallic noise of his armour as a small gun raised out of the forearm now pointed at his head. _

"_Hold still you little prick."_

"_Tony!"_

Tony's eyes snapped open and he spluttered and coughed as if he'd been holding his breath. He looked around. He was in his bed, it had been a dream. He closed his eyes again and tried to regulate his breathing. When he'd finally calmed down enough to slow his racing heart, he turned his head to see if he had woken Pepper, only to find she wasn't there. He scrunched up his face in confusion. Surely that hadn't been a dream as well? No, he knew that was real.

"Jarvis?"

The AI answered straight away. "Yes sir?"

"Time please."

"The time is 10:37am."

"Where's Pepper?" he asked, flinging the bed sheet off himself and searching the floor for his boxers. There were no traces of Pepper's clothing anywhere to be seen.

"Miss. Potts is currently in the kitchen cleaning up what was knocked over after your activities this morning." Tony ignored the non-existent smirk that Jarvis would have donned had he had a face and pulled on his underwear. He didn't bother with covering the top half of himself and walked out of his bedroom towards the kitchen.

He found Pepper, fully dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt, pulling cling-film around the turkey, managing a far neater job than Tony would have ever dared attempt. Leaning against the door frame, he watched her finish wrapping the turkey and deposit it in the enormous fridge next to the counter. As she closed the door she caught sight of him and gasped.

"Christ, you startled me." She turned quickly back to her tidying up, an odd look on her face. Tony shrugged himself off the door frame and walked over to her.

"Sorry." He said. She remained silent and carried on cleaning up errant bits of stuffing. "So, I woke up and you'd gone..." he let the sentence hang, hoping she would explain why.

"Yeah," she didn't look at him when she spoke. "I figured it was probably best to get back to normal and..." she trailed off but he knew what she was thinking, and that kinda pissed him off.

"And what?" he said as calmly as he could, taking a seat at the island. She still didn't turn around and remained silent. "And what, Pepper? Forget it ever happened?"

She sighed and turned to him finally. "I think that's probably best." She repeated.

"Who for?" he demanded.

"Tony-"

"No, seriously, who for? Because I certainly don't want to forget about it."

"Well I do." She said bluntly. He stared at her, slightly stunned, trying to process what she'd said. Before he could articulate anything, she pushed herself away from the counter and walked quickly towards the lounge area. He sat there for a few more seconds before hopping of the chair and following her. She was behind the sofa, leaning against it and looking out at the phenomenal view of the coast.

"Why?" he asked as soon as he spotted her. "Why do you want to forget it? Was it that bad or..."

Pepper laughed dryly. "No, you were...that's not what this is."

"Then what? I'm honestly failing to see the problem here."

"The problem?" Pepper's voice raised and she span around to face him. "The problem, Tony, is I am now just another name on a list."

Tony looked like she'd just slapped him in the face. "Run that by me again?"

"You heard what I said."

"Yeah, I did, and that's what I'm struggling with."

Pepper rolled her eyes and stepped away from the couch. "Whatever." She began walking towards her room, Tony following her. "I think it's best if I go home."

"What is the conclusion you think you've come to here?" he asked, a stern look in his eye. "Where is this coming from?"

"Just leave it." She pulled the bag she had brought with her onto the bed and began grabbing clothes and throwing them into it.

"No. Hey," he grabbed her arm to stop her rushed movements and looked into her eyes. "Pepper, tell me what's wrong."

Tears were beginning to well in her eyes and she wrenched her arm away from his hand. "I already told you."

"Ok, so if that is a problem, why is it only surfacing now? Huh?" his anger was peaking again because she just wouldn't tell him the real issue. He was used to getting to the answer, whatever it may be, exceptionally fast, and this was driving him insane. "If me having been promiscuous in the past is such an issue, how could you bring yourself to make lo-"

"Please don't finish that sentence." Pepper sighed heavily, a tear rolling down her cheek. She hurriedly continued shoving clothes back into the bag, not caring about the manner in which she did so.

"Why not? We both know it was more than just sex, Pepper. At least it was to me." He finished quietly.

Pepper stopped shoving clothes into the bag but didn't look at him. "We let it go too far." She said softly.

A few seconds passed, and then Tony nodded. "Fine." He said gruffly and stormed out of her room.

* * *

An hour and a half later, Tony was just about finishing up tuning the laser guided missiles on the suit, when his music abruptly stopped. He knew it was Pepper, but he didn't bother stopping his work, or even acknowledging that he had noticed her come in. After a few seconds silence, she spoke.

"I had a dream." She quietly said, the echo from the workshop making it sound ten times louder. Tony span his chair around to face her and chucked the tools he had been using on the cluttered table next to him. He took in her red eyes and his anger dissipated slightly.

"Funny, I'm sure I've heard something similar to that before…can't think where though." He stood up and walked over to his workbench to grab a soldering iron. When she still remained silent, he smiled apologetically and propped himself against the bench. "What was it about?"

She walked over to him and copied his stance next to him. "I dreamt that I woke up this morning and you weren't here. It was late, I asked Jarvis where you'd gone and he told me you were at a party. Next thing I knew I was there, and when I found you, you were dancing with this other woman…I use the term dancing extremely loosely, and then you brought her back here and…" she cleared her throat but didn't need to carry on. She did, however, nearly have a heart attack when Tony began laughing.

Of all the reactions she had expected from him, this was not one of them.

"Have I gone insane or are you actually laughing at me?" Tony shook his head, still chuckling slightly.

"I'm not laughing at you, well, I am kinda, but not for why you might think." He smiled broadly at her and took one of her hands. "Pepper, I had a dream as well. I dreamt you morphed into Obadiah while I was kissing you and tried to kill me." Pepper gave him an odd look.

"Ok…"

"See, mine was a shit scary dream too, but that's all it was, Potts, a dream. It doesn't mean that Stane's gonna rise from the grave and murder me."

"Tony…" she took her hand from him and stood up. "It's not the same thing."

"It's exactly the same thing." He stood up too. "What, you think that just because yours is more likely to happen in real life that it will?"

"A leopard doesn't change its spots."

"Well this one's going for a whole new pattern." He walked closer to her. "Pepper, I'm trying so hard to change, I thought I might have shown you that over the past few months, but apparently I'm going to have to do a better job to prove myself." He reached down to take one of her hands. "The pre-Iron Man Tony would just let this slide, he wouldn't have cared, but he's just a ghost now, and I don't want to screw this up." He raised his other hand to her cheek and she closed her eyes as he stroked it softly. "I don't want to keep looking back over my shoulder and seeing all the mistakes I've made; I want something to look forward to." He moved to kiss her but she placed a hand on his chest holding him back.

"The problem is, I can't stop looking back, and every time I try and look forward, this," she motioned between them. "just doesn't register." She stepped back from him and began walking to the door.

"God damn it, will you stop running from this?!" he shouted after her. "What is it going to take for you to believe that I can change?"

"Proof?"

"Proof?" he repeated. "Proof? Ok, how about the fact that since I came back from Afghanistan, I haven't slept with anyone. How about the fact that since that night we kissed I haven't even _glanced_ at another woman, how about the fact that I didn't get up and leave straight after we were done? How about all the work I've done in the past year trying to make the world a better place." He took a deep shuddering breath. "How about the fact that I nearly killed myself to stop Stane killing you? How about you were one of the very few things that kept me going in that cave? Does that mean nothing?"

"It means the world, Tony." Pepper spat at him. "But it doesn't mean you still won't break my heart if I let you in."

"But if you'd just give me a fighting chance-"

"How can I when I can't even stop thinking about it in my sleep?"

He didn't have an answer for that.

"Exactly." She murmured when he said nothing. "Now, I think it's best that I go back home and think about what I'm going to do."

"What does that mean?" he asked her. Pepper shrugged. "You mean you need to think about if you're gonna quit or not?"

"Like I said, I need to think about things." She keyed in her authorisation code and Tony's music began playing again. She opened the door and looked back at him.

"Merry fucking Christmas Tony."

**TBC**

* * *

Told you, drama, drama, drama!


	5. Iron Man

Ok, sorry this is a bit late, but I've had LOADS to do the past two weeks. First off, I'll tell you a little bit about the thing I'm most excited about, Wing Chun. Yes, I've finally got my arse back into martial arts and whadya know, there's a Wing Chun Centre in Manchester. Now, some of you (the Downey Stalkers) may have put two and two together and are currently buzzing as much as I was when I found out, but for those who aren't as stalkerish as the rest of us, lemme tell you a few things. RDJ does Wing Chun, that's kinda what got me into the idea. Yeah, it's kinda cool I do the same form as him, but that's not all. The building I train in is called the Ching Mo Centre, and some months ago, a certain gorgeous man jumped out of one of the windows after a large French guy. Yep, I'm training in the same room that Robert Downey Jr jumped out of in Sherlock Holmes. Me and my Sifu got into a whole conversation about it, and not only did he get to meet the man himself (there's a picture hanging on the wall to prove this fact) but he also knows RDJ's Sifu personally! I gotta tell you, when I saw the picture I nearly had a nervous breakdown. Surreal much? Cannot wait until they start filming again! I really hope he comes back! Eee, anyways, I'm in sooooooooo much pain from the actual training, so it's been a bit of a lazy week. Forgive me?

Song of the Day: Black Sabbath – Iron Man

Ooh, finally, this chapter kinda jumps backwards and forwards, so have fun (Y).

P.S. I suck at Geography.

* * *

_December 24__th__, 10:49pm_

Pepper felt like shit.

She'd been trying to get to sleep for the past hour, but for some reason a little niggling feeling of guilt kept kicking her cerebellum. Not about the 'situation', she was totally justified about that, although it had taken an awful lot of willpower not to crumple when he'd been trying to persuade her that he was changing. No, she felt bad because she'd left him on his own.

Usually it wouldn't have bothered her so much that he was alone, he always had a party or seven to go to, but this year, he'd declined any and all invites and asked to spend Christmas with her. And the fact that he'd gone so far as to cook-

Oh God, the turkey! She'd probably go back and find stuffing over every surface. Pepper groaned at this and pulled the covers over her head, as if this would stop the niggler. No chance. It was now questioning her justification. Was she the right one in all of this? There was no doubt, surely. No, it was stupid to even think it. Tony Stark in a committed relationship? It was too obscure to even register.

Yes, he was charming, and handsome, and intelligent...and had an above decent body...and gorgeous eyes-

She shook her head to get back to her train of thought.

-but he had never been in a relationship longer than a few hours. Pepper doubted he would even know what to do in that sort of situation. True, he had never cheated on a girl before, but that was only because he never actually stayed past bedtime. It was also true that while he always took his flings into his 'spare room' (a room at the complete opposite side of the house to his actual bedroom), he had taken Pepper to his _actual_ bedroom.

The niggler kicked and stamped more furiously at this. Had he taken there because it was closest? No, the largest of the two kitchens was pretty much in the centre of the house, so it was either or. He had _chosen _ to take her there. She sighed heavily.

"You're reading way too much into things Potts." She mumbled to herself.

Or was she? Not only had he taken her to his real bedroom, he had willingly fallen asleep afterwards. She had known him long enough to know that a). _she_ couldn't have worn _him _out, and b). he never went to sleep. Ever. He would always either go to his actual bed or down to his workshop. This was one of the things that had scared her slightly. Granted she hadn't minded at the time, but hindsight is funny like that.

She started to think over what she had said to him and cringed when she remembered the look on his face. She had completely ripped his feelings to shreds it seemed, but it was for the best, there could be no denying that.

...so why did she still feel guilty for leaving him alone?

"Ugh, fine, I'll go and see him tomorrow." She snapped into the darkness. She turned over and punched the pillow into a more comfortable position. The niggling stopped, departing with a smug laugh, and sleep followed soon after.

* * *

_December 25__th__, 8:23am_

Pepper pulled up into the garage next to Tony's house and shut off the engine, and then just sat there, gripping the wheel, trying to think of what she would say to him when she saw him.

"I'm just here for Christmas...I don't want to ruin our friendship if it's still there...ugh fuck it." She flung the car door open and stepped out. "Good morning Jarvis." She said as cheerfully as she could.

"Good morning, Miss Potts." Replied the AI. "And might I add, Merry Christmas."

"Oh, thanks." She said, surprised. "Same to you. Is Mr. Stark up yet?" she locked her car and began walking towards the door to the house.

"Affirmative." Jarvis said after a brief pause.

"Where is he?" she asked. Another pause.

"Mr. Stark is currently on a mission."

Pepper stopped short of the door. "On Christmas? Fury called him away on Christmas Day?" she shook her head and carried on up the stairs.

"Negative, Miss."

"What do you mean 'negative'?" she reached the top of the stairs and then turned to walk down to his workshop, which he had partly turned into a mission control room.

"Mr. Stark received a call from the Initiative at approximately 2:13pm on the 23rd December." Jarvis said.

"You mean he's been gone two days?" she asked, shocked. She keyed in her code and pulled the door open, walking over to his computer and pulling up his mission logs. "Where was he called to?"

"Three point eight miles south-east of Baghdad. Dr. Banner required some assistance."

Pepper tapped a few keys to attempt to bring up his current position, but was met with a message stating that 'the connection has been lost'. Her heart jumped into her throat.

"Jarvis, com-link please."

"I'm afraid I cannot perform that task."

"Why not?" Pepper's voice shook slightly.

"The Iron Man suit is offline, it is without power." He said as if this information was of no importance.

"What do you mean he's offline?" Pepper's voice raised. "What happened?" there was yet another pause whilst Jarvis gathered some information.

"I do not know exactly. Amongst the most recent unfriendly weapon assessment, there was a form of electro-magnetic pulsar gun. An explosion destroyed the weapon but a blast emitted from it. If the blast reached Mr. Stark, this could have caused the loss of power."

"What would that do to Tony?" she was near hyperventilation by this point, frantically tapping on the keyboard for some kind of positive information.

"I do not know exactly." Jarvis repeated. Pepper closed her eyes, there was after all a limit on the amount of information Jarvis could give her, however she was hoping on something more.

"Give me a run down on everything that happened from the time he set off til now." She began pacing whilst Jarvis spoke to her.

"Mr. Stark received the call at 2:13pm, he suited up and left the house at 2:46pm, heading for the co-ordinates given to him by the Initiative. He met with Dr. Banner at approximately 7:37pm, and the last voice command was received at 12:09am yesterday. The connection was severed at 12:14am on the 24th December." Jarvis brought this information up on the large screen on the wall that Pepper was pacing in front of.

"What was the last voice command?" she asked curiously.

"Code 5253-7."

"And what is that?" she had never heard of this code.

"I am not permitted to reveal that information."

"Ugh fine." She threw herself down on the couch opposite the large screen and buried her head in her hands.

She definitely shouldn't have left him on his own.

* * *

_23__rd__ December, 2:10pm_

_Tony was trying to distract himself, and failing miserably. He was usually able to do it with expertise when he was bored. He would just find something to fiddle with, usually something on one of his cars, and tedium averted. This time, however, he wasn't trying to beat boredom, he was trying to rid the deep feeling of…of…he didn't even know what it was, but he knew it was all Pepper's fault. His stomach was in knots and he felt like he was trying to breathe from the very top of Everest, his lungs aching from the need of more oxygen than was currently available. He was about three seconds from caving and pouring himself a stiff drink when his private com-link rang._

"_Thank God." He threw the ratchet spanner he was wielding onto his tool desk and rubbed his eyes. "Who is it Jarvis?"_

"_The call is coming from the Avengers Initiative, sir. Mr. Fury."_

"_Put him through." Not the person he had wanted to be calling him, but work would be better than sitting and stewing. "Fury, what's this? Early Christmas greetings?"_

"_In a sense." The voice of Nick Fury boomed at him in surround sound. "I need you in Baghdad an hour ago. We sent Banner in to assist Initiative scientists in the region but some of your weapons were fired over the research facility they are operating out of."_

_Tony scrunched up his eyes. "My weapons? I thought we got them all? Don't tell me we've got another mole in the company."_

"_No, these are last year's models, but still, Banner's having a hard time fighting them off by himself. The research he's trying to protect is extremely important to us. There isn't time to fill you in properly, just get there asap." The line went dead and Tony sighed, cracking his knuckles and standing up._

"_Ah well, back to work." He stepped over to the platform to suit up. "Jarvis, have we got info?" the robots began piecing his armour together._

"_Affirmative, sir." Jarvis replied. "The co-ordinated are logged, less than four miles from Bagdad. A partial list of Stark Weaponry has been fed through by Dr. Banner."_

"_How's the Green Machine doing on his own?" Tony grinned as the faceplate came down over his head and locked into place._

"_Dr. Banner is still fighting well, although signs of fatigue were reported. I suggest urgency."_

"_Duly noted." He said, kicking off from the ground and zooming up through the hatches he had made from the holes in the roof.

* * *

_

_Tony's House, 25__th__ December, 5:18pm_

Pepper was going slightly insane. She had ransacked everything she could think of in the mission log, traced back to Tony's last known co-ordinates and tried several different methods to get the com-link working, even resorting to calling him on his cell, only to find it was unavailable, meaning it was either dead, turned off (which she doubted) or completely destroyed and currently lying in a smoking pile of broken metal and bones. She prayed it wasn't the latter, but her brain wouldn't let her think otherwise. This was the same part of her brain that was screaming at her to call either Rhodey or Fury. However, the common sense side of her brain was screaming back that Tony had previously been on a mission longer than two days in the past, and there was no point worrying Rhodey, and after all, if something had happened to either Tony or Banner, Fury would know.

So there was nothing to worry about…

Right?

* * *

_Baghdad, 23__rd__ December, 7:37pm_

_Tony dodged a random missile as he blitzed through the sky towards the huge green figure on the ground ahead of him. He watched as the Hulk punched another missile out of the way and ripped the head off a third, throwing it back at the machine that had fired it, sending it up into a ball of flames and explosions._

"_Doesn't look like the big guy needs my help after all." Tony commented._

"_Health stats report that the Hulk form of Dr. Banner is reaching maximum fatigue. He will more than likely return to his normal form in a matter of minutes." Jarvis countered. Tony sighed._

"_I guess this is where I come in then." He said as another missile and a heard of bullets made their way towards him. "Divert power to weapons, bring up the targets on the HUD and get to it Jarvis!"

* * *

_

_Tony's House, 28__th__ December, 1:48pm_

"Pepper, calm down, he'll be fine." Rhodey tried to reassure the frantic woman sat beside him. Pepper had finally caved and called Rhodey that morning in floods of tears. Unable to decipher what she was trying to tell him, he had only discovered the story when he had entered Tony's house and calmed her down enough for her to speak coherently.

"But what if he's not?" Pepper hiccupped. "What if he's really hurt? Oh God, the last thing I said to him was so harsh, Rhodey, what if I never get to apologise?" tears began forming in her eyes again, but Rhodey grabbed her by the shoulders roughly and gave her a sharp shake.

"Pepper, listen to me, ok?" he looked her straight in the eyes. "What did I tell you when Tony was kidnapped? When you came to me like you are now?"

"That he couldn't be dead because if he was his ghost would come back out of spite to annoy the living shit out of us?"

"Exactly." He smiled and a corner of Pepper's mouth lifted, but her eyes were still sad.

"Rhodey, this is different, he _volunteered _for this, he walked into danger." She got up off the couch they were seated on and walked over to Tony's mini drinks cabinet, pulling out a horrendously expensive bottle of scotch, pouring herself two fingers and downing it in one gulp. She started to pour another one but Rhodey's hand stopped her.

"Look, just trust me, he's fine. We would have heard something by now if he wasn't." Pepper snorted and shoved his hand away, downing another glass. Rhodey took the bottle off her. "You know, he's gonna be pissed when he comes back and finds his best scotch all gone."

"He hasn't drunk that stuff since he came back." She swirled the few droplets left in the bottom of the glass.

"That doesn't mean you should catch him up." He said softly, placing the bottle down on the cabinet and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. "If we don't hear anything by New Years Day, I'll go after him." He nudged her and brought her away from the cabinet. "Now, there's a turkey in the fridge upstairs that's about two days away from putrefaction, and I'm absolutely starving."

* * *

_Baghdad, 24__th__ December, 12:09am_

"_Banner, wake up!" Tony yelled over the sound of several loud explosions going off at once. The now human form of Bruce Banner was lying a few hundred feet away at a safer distance than Tony, who was just applying the finishing touches to getting rid of the current threat by firing time delayed bombs at the four Stark Industries 77650-FGH Missile Units that were causing the major problems. Everything else would either be taken care of in the ensuing explosion or could be easily dealt with after, but the other issue was getting Banner to a safer distance. Tony's bombs had a range of about half a mile, and he had three minutes to cover that distance as soon as he activated them._

"_Bruce! Get your skinny Hulk-less ass out of sleepy land and move the fuck away!" he yelled as Banner groggily raised his head. "Jarvis, activate the bombs, now!" _

"_Sir, I have detected the presence of an electromagnetic device approximately a mile away and moving rapidly towards you. By my calculations, the device will be destroyed in the blast but will emit a blast of its own which could cause problems for the suit." The AI informed him._

"_Great." Tony grumbled through gritted teeth. "We don't have much choice Jarvis, just activate the bombs…and initiate Code 5254-7." He fired at a large calibre bullet heading straight for him, destroying it instantly, and sped towards Banner._

"_Yes sir. Good luck."_

_Tony grabbed a wobbly Banner and kicked off from the ground._

"_Banner, you with us?" Tony shook the semi naked man and his head lolled._

"_Just about." Bruce said gruffly. "Is the fight over?"_

"_Nearly." he picked up speed as Jarvis' warning of 90 seconds sounded in his ears. "I need you to listen to me, in about a minute and a half, and explosion is gonna eliminate those S.O.B's, but it also might fuck me up to. I dunno what's gonna happen, but I'm assuming it's gonna involve a lot of falling for the both of us, so tuck and roll, gottit?"_

"_I got it." Bruce said. "I think I'm getting my strength back…slowly."_

"_Thirty seconds. Ok, when you come round, assuming I'm still alive, you need to get me out of the suit, there's a release button under the third left rib plate, push that and it'll loosen the fixings to get me out. I should come round pretty soon after that."_

"_Ok, but what should I do if-"_

"_It's been taken care of, just remember what I-"_

_An astonishingly loud boom sounded in the distance, followed by a flash of yellow-orange light, and then a flash of blue which mushroomed out rapidly in all directions. The HUD flickered and died in front of his eyes, and then Tony's world went black._

_TBC

* * *

_

Wow, that went on for a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would. I'll post the rest hopefully early next week. My internet's still down at the minute, but if all else fails I'll have to pop to the library in the week…or wait til Friday so I can steal my Nan's interwebz. I did mean to post on Wednesday, but I only finished this tonight. My bicycle got nicked on Wednesday so I had very little incentive to write. Hope this was worth the wait.


	6. Crashed

Ok, so I've had no internet for the past three weeks so everything internet-ish has had to be done by my phone (God bless it). So I'm mooching through YouTube looking for a cover of a song that RDJ apparently did (Lady Blue? The lyrics were in Spanish so I think the site I was on was lying to me...) and what do I find? Yes, the second Iron Man trailer. And what does my phone decide to do at the exact moment I need it most? It decides that it no longer likes YouTube and refuses to play its videos smoothly enough to be of any use. Bastard. Thanks be to the inventor of the library computer is all I can say.

Anywho, here's the next/rest of the last chapter. Enjoy.

Song of the Day: Daughtry – Crashed (third favourite song ever).

* * *

_A cave in Baghdad, 26__th__ December, 4:57pm_

_The limp body of Anthony Edward Stark lay in the dusty ground of a dark cave, his armour stripped from him, uselessly piled against a wall next to him. His left shoulder was stretched at an odd angle from where it had been shoved back into the socket by his current companion who was sitting not far from him, propped up against a wall and trying to get some sleep._

_The sun was at a low enough angle to shed light right into the bowels of the cave, but not even that showed the end. Banner doubted there was anything of interest back there anyway as once again he tried to slip into unconsciousness. Getting Stark out of the suit had been a bitch, resulting in several cuts and the need for an explanation as to how Stark had dislocated his shoulder. He wasn't one hundred percent sure he had taken all the bits off correctly, but he figured it was better off than on, if what he'd heard had been correct. He would have to try and wake Stark before he drifted off completely. As this thought hit him, the lifeless body in front of him coughed. _

"_Ow. Ow...ow!" tried to sit up, which involved using his shoulder, which in turn involved a lot of pain. "Damn, must've hit the ground harder than I thought." He managed to pull himself up and looked around, finding Banner's sleepy figure. "Don't tell me you're tired?"_

_Banner's eyes opened groggily. "I hauled your metal ass for thirty minutes before I found this cave, and you've been asleep for nearly two days. 'I should come round pretty quickly after that'". He mimicked Tony's words, which made Stark chuckle._

"_Do you know what day it is?" Tony asked as he butt shuffled over to his armour and checked it over._

"_If my math is right, the 26__th__. Not sure on the time though. Early evening I think, the temperature's dropped." Banner let his head drop back onto the rock wall and closed his eyes again. "Think you can take over keeping a look out for a while?"_

"_Sure. You need the beauty sleep." Tony flipped a small panel on the inner wrist of one glove and attempted to call home. _

"_I think your suit's fucked. I swear a voice kept coming out of the helmet."_

"_That'd be Jarvis." Tony said, picking up his helmet and flipping the faceplate open. In doing so, he stretched his arm out, hissing slightly when it protested at the movement. "Ah, remind me to teach you how to take this off me, can't have you ripping my arm out of the socket every time."_

_Banner smiled slightly as the darkness consumed him.

* * *

_

_Tony's Workshop, 29__th__ December, 9:23am_

Pepper was now reaching the end of her tether. She had ordered Jarvis to try and contact Tony every half hour, but all he was reporting back was static. This was, however, and improvement on the nothing she'd been getting before. Jarvis had tried comforting her by telling her that there was a 27% chance that Tony was the one fixing the suit. This, shockingly, had done little to give Pepper any hope and she was fighting a losing battle with hysteria. Rhodey had left her in the early hours of that morning after begging with her for nearly an hour to get some sleep. She had compromised by sitting cross legged in the middle of Tony's bed and hugging one of the pillows.

When sleep finally did take her, it was through sheer exhaustion. She all but collapsed on the couch in Tony's workshop and left Jarvis to his own devices with explicit instructions for him to wake her with even the most tenuous piece of information.

Even bad information.

* * *

_A mile South of the SHIELD Scientific Research Lab, 29__th__ December, 6:37pm_

"_Damn, this stuff is heavy." Banner huffed as he dragged the bottom half of the Iron Man suit across the sand and rocks. "How the hell do you manage to move in this?"_

"_Well when there's power in it, the thousands of motors and giros, and of course Jarvis, make it real easy. I would explain it fully, but I think my brain got fried in the hike here." He squinted ahead, raising an arm to shield his eyes from the sun. "I can see the facility. No smoke coming from it so that's a good sign." He heaved the chest plate back over his shoulder and trudged on. "Couldn't you turn into your larger, more attractive self and help us out with the heavy lifting?"_

_Banner chuckled. "I haven't quite learned how to control him yet, he pretty much only makes an appearance when I'm annoyed or upset."_

"_Well," Tony grunted. "I could slap you around a bit if that'd help?"_

"_Only if you wanted me to kill you." He replied, smiling broadly._

"_You wouldn't say that if my armour was working."_

"_Nah, I'd still kick your ass."_

_They carried on a little further, the research facility getting ever closer and a comfortable silence descending over them. Eventually, Tony broke it._

"_Got any resolutions, Banner? New Year in two days and all that."_

_Banner thought about it for a minute and then smiled. "Try and get my girlfriend's dad to like me."_

"_Ooh, glad I've never been in that position. Good luck with that."_

"_Thanks." Bruce said sarcastically. "What about you Stark?" he turned to face Tony as he stopped to give his shoulder a quick rub. They were mere minutes away from the lab now. Tony sighed._

"_Well, I put my assistant under a hell of a lot of stress this year with my 'coming out', and we were supposed to do Christmas, but I guess that plan went south, so I've got a lot to grovel for. I guess my resolution is to try and see things from her perspective before I act." He picked up the top half of the suit again for the final stretch. Banner started walking too. Someone had come out of the building ahead of them and was waving frantically. Tony raised his hand in acknowledgement._

"_Would that be Pepper?" Banner asked. Tony shot him a confused look and Bruce smiled. "You kept saying 'Pepper' in your sleep; I'm assuming you weren't dreaming about seasoning." Tony blushed slightly, a rare sight. "She hot?" Stark smiled to himself and shook his head. _

"_She's beautiful."

* * *

_

_Tony's House, 31__st__ December, 11:01pm_

"Rhodey, you promised!" Pepper practically screeched down the phone at the Colonel. "Tony's still not back, you have to go and look for him!"

"Pepper, I said I'd go look for him if he wasn't back by New Year's. He's still got fifty-nine minutes and you know how he likes to make an entrance-"

"Don't feed me that bullshit, and don't argue with me with technicalities. He's been missing without contact for over a week, please Rhodey, I'm begging you." Her voice began betraying her as her emotions boiled over.

"Pepper..."

"Fine!" she screamed. "Fine, let your best friend lay in a cave dying, why should you care? It's not like you owe him anything is it?" she didn't even bother ending the call, simply throwing the phone across the room, watching it smash into pieces as it hit the wall opposite. Pepper took a deep breath and then sagged against the wall, letting gravity take her all the way down to the floor. She brought her knees up to her chest and crumpled into a fit of sobs.

"Sorry to interrupt Miss Potts, but there is a call coming through from Nick Fury." Jarvis' crisp voice brought her round to sanity. Her head snapped up and she sniffed heavily.

"Put him through." She hiccupped.

"Miss Potts? Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD." Fury's voice replaced Jarvis.

"I know who you are." Pepper replied with a hint of contempt. "Have you heard anything from Tony?"

"I was just about to ask you the same question." Fury said with disappointment. "We haven't been able to contact the research lab for a number of days, we believe some sort of electro-magnetic-"

"Yeah, we've got the same problem here." Pepper said impatiently. "So do you mean to tell me there is no way to contact this research lab?"

"Short of flying out there myself, no. It's too dangerous to enter that zone right now; until we get some form of report back we've blocked any and all entrance to the region."

"So you're just going to leave him out there? Dying?" Pepper's voice raised but Fury stayed calm.

"Miss Potts, I may not know Stark as well as you do, but I know him well enough to understand that it is not yet a time to be worrying. He's been away for longer than this without contact, am I right? He came back...maybe not in exactly the same condition-"

"Exactly!" Pepper shouted. "What if he comes back even worse? How much more can his body handle?"

There was a few seconds silence before Fury sighed. "He'll be fine, Miss Potts. He's a fighter."

* * *

_SHIELD Scientific Research Lab, Baghdad, 31__st__ December, 7:58pm_

_Two days of a team of eight men, not including Banner and Stark, and finally the Iron Man suit was up and running._

"_Yes!" Tony punched his fist into the air and high fived a rather excited looking man stood next to him. "Finally!" he picked up his helmet and jammed it onto his head, the HUD flicking slightly before loading up his preferences. "Jarvis?"_

"_Welcome back Mr. Stark." Jarvis sounded slightly relieved, or as relieved as an emotionless computer could. "I trust everything is well once more?"_

"_Couldn't be better." Tony chuckled. "We all up and running?"_

"_Once the suit is complete I will be able to make a full assessment, but preliminary scans show no signs of major damage. A flight home should be met with no problems."_

"_Excellent." Tony pulled the helmet off and was met with the confused faces of the scientists and Banner who had heard nothing of Jarvis' side of the conversation. Tony decided it was best not to try and explain. "Time to get suited up boys."_

_Twenty minutes later, Tony was completely encased in the titanium alloy and ready to fly home. Jarvis' calculations had been accurate and no problems had been detected. He had even managed to contact SHIELD and inform them of what had happened and a team of agents was on its way to ensure everything was safe. Banner was staying behind to help out._

"_Well, it was nice working with you, Doctor." Tony stuck his hand out to Banner, who took it and shook it tightly._

"_Same to you, Stark." Banner smiled at him. He followed him as Tony walked out of the facility (he thought it best not to leave a gigantic hole in the ceiling)._

"_What's our ETA Jarvis?" Tony asked._

"_Approximate time of arrival is set at 11:49pm tonight." The computer replied._

"_Ooh, cutting it short but I'll get home this year." He smiled at Banner and flicked his faceplate down, firing his flight stabilisers and hovering a few feet above the ground. Banner whistled, this being the first time he had seen the suit in action without a green mist in front of his eyes. "Give my regards to the missus." Tony saluted Banner who laughed._

"_Same to you, Iron Man."

* * *

_

Tony's House, 31st December, 11:40pm

Tony had gone Supersonic pretty much all the way home, against Jarvis' better judgement, but making it home before his ETA. Giving himself a little pat on the back for beating Jarvis, something that he rarely did, he performed a textbook landing and slid down the hatches into his workshop, his metal boots making a soft clunk on the concrete floor below. He stepped forward slightly and ordered his bots to start dismantling the suit, performing a much better job than Banner had done. Once out of the suit, he unzipped the top half of his neoprene under suit and shoved it down to his waist, rotating his still sore shoulder and walking to the elevator (he was way too tired to manage the stairs).

The elevator made a soft 'ding' as it reached the ground level of the house and he stepped out, the cooler air hitting his bare chest and wafting the stank that had gathered on his body over the past week. 'Should have had a shower at the lab.' Tony thought to himself. That could wait til morning though; all he wanted to do now was go to bed. He passed the kitchen and briefly registered the sight of a half demolished turkey carcass lying on the counter. That, too, could wait til morning. His bed was calling to him.

He turned the last corner of the hallway to his bedroom and walked through the doorway, ready to dive-bomb onto the cushiony awesomeness ahead, only to find that it was already occupied by a red-headed woman, wearing one of his shirts, sitting with her back against the headboard, knees up to her chest and his pillow under her chin.

"...Pepper?"

* * *

'Fine, he wants technicalities, I'll call him on the _dot_ of midnight and tell him to get his ass out there and find him'. Pepper had once again taken refuge in Tony's bedroom, resorting to stealing one of his shirts as she had nothing else to sleep in, and as much as she hated to admit it, she was on the verge of becoming comatose if she didn't get some sleep soon. She had turned the television on to watch the ball drop so she would know the _exact_ second to call Rhodes.

'I should call him now, just to be a pain in the ass. He's probably out celebrating, stupid son of a-'

"Pepper?"

'-great, now I'm hearing his voice. Nice one Potts, you're going insane.' She actually laughed to herself at this and buried her face deeper into the pillow, closing her eyes. 'Only a few more minutes.'

"Pepper?" Tony walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, beginning to get worried now. "Pepper, are you ok?"

'Ok, that feels real...' Pepper raised her head slowly and looked up, finding a bare chested, extremely dirty and sweaty Tony Stark. Her mouth opened in shock.

"Tony?" she whispered.

"...yeah?" Tony said, very confused now. "Are you ok?" he crouched down and brought his hand from her shoulder to her cheek and stared at her. Pepper gasped.

"Oh my God, Tony!" she flew at him, crashing into his body and wrapping her arms around his neck. Tony straightened up and stumbled backwards, reflexively hugging her back. "You're really back! I can't believe it!" she nuzzled into the join between his neck and shoulder and scrunched her eyes up, forcing herself not to cry.

"Uh, I wouldn't get too comfortable there, I haven't showered in eight days." Tony said, laughing shakily. Pepper pulled her head back and beamed at him.

"You've never smelt so good in your entire life." She said as a rogue tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't believe you're back, I was thinking the worst."

Something in Tony's head clicked and he raised his eyebrows at her. "Have you been here all week?" Pepper nodded.

"I came round on Christmas Day, I couldn't leave you on your own, and then you weren't here, and Jarvis told me what had happened and that he'd lost contact with you and..." she broke off and took a deep breath. "I've been worried sick." She pushed his bangs out of his eyes and let her fingers linger at his law line.

"Well, apart from a freshly re-located shoulder, I'm perfectly ok." He smiled at her, his eyes flicking between hers. "What about you? You look exhausted."

"So do you." She retorted.

"Yeah well, crash landing and sleeping in a cave does that to you." He attempted humour but Pepper's eyes went wide. "Never mind, I'll tell you about it in the morning. We should sleep now." He used his grip around her waist to lift her slightly and shuffle forwards towards his bed and sat Pepper down on it, but she stood up again.

"And the ball is dropping! Ten...nine..." the TV began counting down to the New Year.

"Wait, I need to apologise, I shouldn't have said what I did when I left, and the truth is I was scared-"

"-seven...six...five..."

"-and my brain was reading too much into things, and then what you were saying about changing-"

"-four...three..."

"-it was just a lot to take in all at once and I handled it wrong, and then I thought I'd lost you again and-"

"-two...one...Happy New Year!" music began playing and signalled the start of the New Year.

"-I guess what I'm trying to say is-" Pepper stopped talking as Tony's lips gently pressed against hers. He wrapped his arms around her once more and brought her as close to him as he could. Pepper's hands landed on his shoulders, and then slid up to his neck as the shock wore off. Tony pulled back before the kiss got too heated and placed another small one on her lips, resting his forehead against hers.

"Happy New Year, Pepper." He whispered to her. Pepper stared at him for a few seconds and Tony felt a brief fit of panic thinking he'd gone too far yet again, before she beamed at him and pulled his head towards hers, kissing him roughly and winding her fingers in his hair. Tony's breath caught in his chest as he kissed her back with enthusiasm, pushing her down onto the bed. Pepper let out a quiet moan as he landed on her, their mouths never parting, tongues battling wildly. Tony pushed Pepper further up the bed and lay fully on top of her, shifting his hands, one holding him up and the other caressing the top of her left leg. His mouth left hers and began a searing trail down her jaw to her neck. One hand still buried in his hair, the other began a slow decent down his body to the waist line of his neoprene suit and she started to push in down, but then she stopped sharply.

"T-Tony?" she said croakily.

"Mmm?" Tony continued his apparent mission to turn her into a lump of melted butter as he began nibbling on her ear, something he had learned would make her putty in his hands.

"Oh, mmm, not that I don't love what you're doing-" her hands gripped him tightly as his began tickling its way back up to her torso. "-but you really do stink."

Tony stopped and his head shot up, a confused but humorous look on his face. "I thought I'd never smelt better in my life?"

Pepper shrugged. "There's only so much ode de man a girl can take before it goes from sexy to skanky." Tony laughed at this and leant down to kiss her again.

"Ok, well, I'll go shower," he kissed her neck as he spoke, making her writhe under him. "and you stay here." He shoved himself up and backed away, still gazing at her. "You know, you should wear my shirts more often." He winked and then disappeared into the en suite. Pepper beamed to herself and lay back, knowing things had drastically changed, and this time, she wasn't in the least bit worried.

Twenty minutes later, Tony exited the shower. He had strongly considered a cold one to calm himself down, but decided his shoulder desperately needed the warmth. He wrapped a towel round his middle after rubbing his head with it and walked back into the bedroom, ready to pounce on Pepper as soon as he saw her, but when he rounded the doorway, he found her in a deep sleep stretched out across the bed on top of the duvet. He sighed softly, slightly grateful as he didn't think with his current level or tiredness he could have performed at full capacity.

He walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers on one side and then walked around to the side she was stretched out on, picking her up gently and placing her under the duvet. He then walked round to the other side and slid in next to her, towel still wrapped around him, and laid back, placing one arm under her head and the other around her waist so she was lying on his chest. Pepper snuggled into him and sighed contently.

"Missed you." She mumbled. Tony kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes.

"Missed you too."

* * *

Tony slept peacefully that night. No dreams of Obadiah taunted him, only visions of the previous night replayed in his head. He woke as his imagination took over the reality of the night and he stretched out his arms, expecting to feel Pepper's weight on his chest still. When he didn't, his eyes snapped open and he looked around.

She wasn't there.

His hand felt the mattress next to him. Still warm, she hadn't been gone that long. The shirt she had been wearing was folded neatly on the pillow. Tony threw the duvet off himself and sprang out of the bed, all but running down the hallway to the lounge.

He found her heading for the front door and he stopped in the middle of the large room.

"Pepper!" she turned around quickly at the sound of his voice. "Pepper, what are you doing?"

"I need to go home." She said, smiling gently at him. "I have to-"

"No! No you don't have to go anywhere." She gave him a shocked look and tried to speak again but he rushed forward and grabbed her hand. "Let me speak. You don't have to go, please don't leave me again. I thought we were getting somewhere." Once again, Pepper opened her mouth but Tony stopped her. "Wait, look, I've told you I'm willing to change and I can't – no, I refuse to walk away from this now. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it, anything, you name it."

"Tony, I can't tell you what to do, it's your life."

"I'm giving it to you." He said and kissed her softly. "I'll give you anything and everything you want, you've already given me everything I'll ever need."

Pepper brought a hand up to his cheek and stroked it. "I still need to go home." She said.

"But why!?" he demanded, a desperate look in his eyes.

"Because I haven't got any clothes here." She said, trying to keep a straight face as his face went from anger to confusion.

"But...wait, what?"

"I've been wearing the same outfit since Christmas Day, I figured if I was going to stay here for a few days...unless you don't want me to..." she trailed off, she hadn't even thought about that when she was inviting herself to stay.

"You...you're staying here?"

"Only if you want me to, and only for a couple days, I'm not like moving in or anything." She looked unsure. "Do you want me to?"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he said excitedly and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up and spinning her around. "Stay as long as you want, and then stay a bit longer." She laughed and kissed him.

Yeah, she wouldn't be leaving him on his own for a while.

**TBC.**

* * *

Wow, would you look at that? Nearly four thousand words. In two days. I figured since this was technically supposed to still be chapter five and the fact that I left you all hanging for over a week, I'd post this when I finished it. And yeah, this was once again supposed to be smut, but I'm quite chuffed with the way it panned out. My brain had a very sneaky way of negotiating around smut. I will try it at some point...maybe...


	7. Every Time You Turn Around

Ok, so I had this all written out, and when I say all, I mean ALL. As in roughly 2,000 words, and then I read it while inebriated and in a fit of drunken rage deleted it. Looking back though, I think this one turned out better than the last, cos this only took me two days to write and I started writing the deleted one about ten minutes after I finished the last chapter and I was struggling, so yeah. Me likey this one, hope you do too (Y).

Also, Daughtry rule everything. Ever.

Song of the Day: Daughtry – Every Time You Turn Around

* * *

Tony was nervous. Way nervous. Like first date nervous. It was probably something to do with tonight being his first official date with Pepper. Yeah, that could be it. Usually he wouldn't be fazed. Usually he wouldn't be silently cursing whoever the hell had invented the bow tie as he furiously remembered how to tie his around his neck. Usually he wouldn't have even bothered with the date. He didn't know how to date! He was less wine and dine and more wine and screw.

"Fuck!" he whipped the satin tie from around his neck and straightened it out again. He considered calling Pepper in to help him tie the damn thing, before he remembered she wasn't there. She had stayed for two days and gone home, much to Tony's disappointment. He told her as much, and after a long and emotional discussion which lasted over an hour, they had decided to have a non-do-over. Tony had suggested a straight out veto of what had happened between them, but Pepper had reassured him, saying she was more than comfortable with where they had ended up, but she worried they had nose dived straight into the 'relationship' part of the relationship. So, after a lot more talking, they decided that Pepper would move back to her apartment and they would date. He had agreed to pick her up from her apartment that very evening, and the only reason he had compromised to that, preferring her to have stayed at his house, was that he got to solely pick the date. That was the only thing he wasn't nervous about, because he knew as soon as the date properly started, there was no way she'd be able to get away. Sounded kind of sinister, he admitted, but it'd be worth it.

"Christ on a cracker!" he scrunched the tie into a ball and launched it at the mirror he had been standing in front of.

"Perhaps we should ignore the bow tie, sir?" Jarvis suggested.

"Excellent idea Jarvis." Tony agreed and flipped his collar down. "Ugh." He winced as the image of his shirt buttoned all the way up, sans tie, disturbed the hell out of him. To solve this issue, he undid the very top button. "There, smart casual." He smirked to himself in the mirror and span around, clasping his hands together. "Ok, where are we on the schedule Jarvis?"

"It appears all you have left to do is to pick Miss Potts up-"

"Fantastic!" he headed for the door but Jarvis continued.

"-in two hours."

"Oh." He stopped. "I knew that." He changed course and went to sit down on the couch. Boredom began to set in almost immediately. He glanced around the room to try and find something to do. Nothing. He sighed and got up again, heading for the workshop. "I've been meaning to try an upgrade…"

* * *

Many different emotions were flitting around Pepper's mind. Annoyance, impatience, and a slight tinge of sadness, all at once. Tony was only an hour late, and it's not like he hadn't been late before. But still, could have made an effort for their first date.

Pepper sighed. She'd already called him twice and been kicked straight to voicemail, which meant he'd selected not to be disturbed, which meant he was in his workshop, which meant it was time to get out of the uncomfortable fancy get up she had donned.

Once changed, she decided it was Ben & Jerry's time. Grabbing a tub of Phish Food out of her freezer, she flopped down onto her couch and skimmed through her DVD collection, finally settling on a soppy rom-com. _'Someone should get some'_ she thought, pulling off the lid of the carton and tucking in. "Mmm, better than dinner at the Ritz any day."

* * *

"Ok, so that goes up there, increase that, and boom!" Tony grinned widely as the upgrade he had been attempting with his helmet worked perfectly. "I'm brilliant." He snapped the faceplate down and put the helmet back on its resting place on top of the suit. He glanced at his watch, and then did a double take. "Jarvis, time please."

"The time is nine-oh-seven, sir." Jarvis informed him.

"God damn it!" Tony yelled. "I'm over an hour late Jarvis! Why didn't you tell me the time?!"

"You requested not to be disturbed."

Tony winced. "From now on, that command applies to everything but Pepper, understand?" he practically threw himself into his Audi and revved up the engine immediately, grabbing his blazer as he went.

"Noted, sir." The AI's voice was drowned out by the screeching of tyres on the polished floor as Tony peeled out of the workshop exit.

He tried calling Pepper but all he got was the voicemail. Cursing his unconscious need to fuck everything up, he swerved through traffic at breakneck speed. When he turned off the freeway, he had a brilliant idea.

* * *

A knock on the door brought Pepper out of her deep film concentration mode. Typical, the film was nearly done and now she gets a visitor. She paused the film just as Faith was fighting with the Italian flight attendants, and heaved herself off the couch.

"Who is it?" she called as she got to the door.

"Tony Stark, the fleshy insides of the dashing super-hero Iron Man, come to grovel and beg for forgiveness." Tony's voice came through he door. Pepper pulled the door open and leaned against the jam.

"Stark…Stark…I'm sure I had a date with him once." She said, looking him up and down. She had been right in thinking he had been in the workshop, there were smears of grease on his forearms and his left cheek. He was looking extremely guilty, his blazer hooked over his shoulder. "Never amounted to anything though."

"I heard about that, what a douche." He snorted and looked at his shoes.

"Well, he has his moments." Pepper said. She wasn't mad at him, but that didn't mean she was going to let him off easily.

He looked back up at her and smiled weakly. "Look, I'm sorry I'm late. I was early and I started tinkering with the suit and then Jarvis didn't tell me I was late, and I know I should have checked the time myself but…" he shrugged pathetically. "Have you eaten?"

"I had an entire carton of Phish Food all to myself, but I don't think that counts as food." She smiled at Tony's baffled look, which he quickly shook off.

"Well, on my way here, I stopped off at a nice little Italian place and got us take-out…if you're still interested?" he brandished a bag at her. A whiff of the food inside sped up her nostrils and her stomach rumbled. "I'll take that as a yes?"

Pepper backed away from the door and let him in. "Kitchen?" he asked.

"Through there." She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder and Tony walked towards it.

"Ok, you sit down and I'll get this ready." He stopped as he passed the TV and studied the image on the screen, then glanced the DVD cover. "Dear God, Pepper, could you have worse movie taste?"

"Shut up and get me food, Stark." She shoved him in the back and sat back down on the couch, pressing play on the remote and finishing off her film. Tony brought the food in as the credits began to roll, so she switched off the TV. "God, that smells delicious." She said as she took the plate from him.

"Nothing will ever beat your curry though." Tony said around a mouthful of pasta he'd already crammed into his mouth.

"I know." She smirked at him and tucked in. They ate in comfortable silence for a while before Tony spoke again.

"You didn't seem surprised."

Pepper looked confused. "When?"

"When you answered the door. I was expecting you to be pissed off or something, but you were kinda…nonplussed, I guess." He shrugged and poked his food around the plate.

"Truth be told, I wasn't really holding my breath for tonight. Don't take that the wrong way." She tried to soften the blow but Tony was looking like a kicked puppy. "Tony, I've worked for you long enough to know that your brain doesn't always give you a choice in matters, especially when you're bored, so don't worry about it, ok?" she brought her hand up to his cheek and stroked it softly, he really looked genuinely sorry.

Tony caught her hand as she pulled it away and kissed her knuckles. "Pepper, I know you keep waiting for me to screw up again. Wait." He stopped her before she could interrupt him. "Let me finish. I know you expect me to screw up. Hell, half the time so do I, and I'm not saying I never will, but…" he sighed as he cast around for the best way to explain. "There are many things I may not have a choice in, and I can't promise I'll always make the right choice, but when it comes down to me, just me, when I do have the choice, I will always choose you. That much I can promise you."

Pepper was blown away. "Wow…I uh, wow." She laughed weakly before leaning forward to kiss him, long and slow. "That is possibly the soppiest thing I have ever heard you say." She grinned, putting both their plates on the coffee table in front of the couch and wrapping her arms around his neck. "But thank you." She kissed him again and he hugged her tightly to him. "I promise I'll be a bit more open minded in future."

"Thank you too." He pecked her on the cheek and pulled her down on top of him so she was laying on his chest. He reached over to the coffee table and picked up the remote, turning the DVD back on. Pepper raised her head to look at him.

"I thought you said this movie sucks?" Tony shrugged.

"Maybe I lied about that." She smirked at him and turned her attention back to the TV. "Although, to be fair, the leading man is a fantastic actor…"

* * *

Yeah, the endy bit sucked. Cookies to those who can guess the film though. I heart it. And major apologies for the late update. My internet at home only just got fixed today and I had literally no other internet access. s


	8. Supernatural

First off: Iron Man 2 is going to be AWESOME. I got the book the other day, finished it in about seven hours (posted a fic about it...hint...) and deary me, cannot fricken wait! A few people have been asking me what happened in it, and if you want to know I have the last chapter written out, I'll PM it to whoever wants it. I was going to post it on here, but I don't think I could handle the lawsuits.

This was meant to be two chapters, but the 'second' chapter would have been about a page long, so I shoved it in here. I'm thinking there's gonna be a max of five chapters before I finish this cos I want to get it done before IM2 comes out here on the 30th (LOL to the rest of the world...). Speaking of, is anyone in the UK going to the premier on the 26th? I can't but some mates who live in London have agreed to go and stand in the pouring rain (bound to be isn't it?) and take many, many photos for me. All I had to do was trade them a lifetime's servitude and my first born son. I think it's a fair trade.

Song of the Day: Daughtry – Supernatural

* * *

James Rhodes sighed for what must have been the millionth time since he entered the Stark mansion nearly an hour before. Wishing every second that he hadn't bothered to engage Tony's request to visit, he raised his head from his hands and stared his friend in the face.

"Tony, for the love of all that is good and holy in the world, will you think about what you're thinking about."

"Yeah, that made sense." He jibed. "Look, all I'm asking for is your opinion, is that so hard?"

"It is when you combine it with the sheer idiocy of what you're asking me." Rhodey said, standing up and moving away from his place on the couch. "You know exactly what Pepper's going to think when she sees that don't you?"

"Is that so bad?"

"Oh no, of course not, especially seeing as firstly, that's not your intention and secondly, you've been going out for a grand total of a month."

"And a half." Tony said, as if this cleared up the argument.

"I do apologise." Rhodey spat back. "Look dude, for the eighth time, if you give her an engagement ring, she'll freak."

"It's not an engagement ring!" Tony shrieked. Rhodey winced and wriggled a finger in his ear.

"That's the first thought that's going to go through her head when she sees a small square box with a _ring_ in it!" he hollered back.

"In any case, engagement rings have diamonds in them." Tony said as if Rhodey hadn't spoken.

"And what have you made that out of?"

"Sapphires."

"And?"

"..."

"Tony!"

"Ok fine, so there's a few teensy tiny diamonds in there, but it still doesn't look like an engagement ring!" he thrust it at Rhodey who snatched it off him. Rhodey closed the box and then quickly opened and closed it in front of Tony's face.

"What did you see?"

"I saw a ring with a miniature, miniature Arc Reactor on it."

"And what do you think Pepper's going to see when you show it to her?"

"...a miniature, miniature-"

"Eh, wrong!" Rhodey cut in. "She's going to see a ring, with a blue sapphire centre and, hey what are those? Oh yeah, _diamonds_!" he stressed the last word to try and get it through to Tony's head.

"But. It's. Not. An. Engagement. RING!" Tony stamped his foot like a toddler and snatched the box back from Rhodey, shoving it in his pants pocket.

"Oh my God, fine." Rhodey held up his hands and walked towards the door. "You know, I am so glad I'm going back to Afghanistan for three months, I could use the peace!" he opened the door and walked through it, leaving it wide open. Tony jogged up to it and watched him go.

"Oh don't be like that honey!" he called after the Colonel. Rhodey raised a very specific salute and Tony laughed. "Be careful out there Platypus."

"Always am, Tin Man." He shouted back, opening his car door and getting in. As he turned the engine over, Pepper's car appeared up the drive. "You know, I should wish her luck." Rhodey called to Tony.

"You say a word to her and I will personally eat your face." Tony pointed a finger at the laughing soldier as he waved and set off down the drive. True to his word, Rhodey's car stopped next to Pepper's for a few seconds and then drove on. Tony whipped his phone out and sent Rhodey a quick text.

_Consider your face eaten._

Thirty seconds later as Pepper was getting out of her car, he received a reply.

_Let me know how it goes. I could do with a laugh when I get back._

"Asshole." He muttered and flipped his phone closed, smiling to himself.

"Nice to see you too." Pepper's voice startled him.

"Rhodey, not you." He shoved his phone in his other pocket and stared at Pepper. "I, uh...wow." she was wearing an emerald green dress, single strapped on her left shoulder and a slit all the way up her right leg up to mid thigh, giving him an extremely luscious view. The dress hugged the few curves she had extremely well, and she had completed the look with matching coloured shoes just how Tony liked them, high heeled and strappy. He gulped, raking his eyes over her body.

"Enjoying the view, Mr. Stark?" she smirked at him, arms crossed as he struggled to form a coherent sentence.

"Well...um, you look...fuck." he grabbed her arm, pulled her through the door and pressed her up against it when it closed, smashing his mouth to hers.

"How do you do it, Pepper?" he said against her skin as he moved from her mouth to her neck.

"What?" she asked breathlessly, her hands wound tight in his hair.

"Make me go from completely level headed to a horny teenager in three seconds flat?" he lifted his head and smiled drowsily at her. Pepper giggled.

"I think that's something you should be asking yourself." She kissed him tenderly and he whimpered, which made her giggle again.

"Tease." He whispered and backed away from her.

"Kettle, this is Pot, you're black." She threw back at him. "And for the record, you don't scrub up so bad yourself."

"What? This old thing?" he asked, looking down at the brand new D&C suit he had gone out and bought especially for the night.

"Where are we going tonight anyway?" she asked him as he walked over to the couch where he had thrown his suit jacket. He put it on and walked back over to her, grabbing her hand and leading her back out of the door.

"Well, seeing as how I kinda fucked up our first date, I'm making up for it." He smiled and led her to the limo, greeting Happy as he held the door open for them.

"Oooookay." She said in a mildly suspicious tone. "So..."

"So, seeing as you were forcing me to attend Christian Lewis' Annual Post New Years Bash tonight, I thought I'd make the best of a bad situation and bring you as my date." He beamed at her as the limo set off.

"We're going to that?"

"Yes." He said, confidently.

"As a couple?"

"Um...yeah?" his confidence waned slightly as he registered her tone of voice. "That's ok right? I mean, we _are_ a couple..."

"Oh, yeah, totally fine." She managed to pull off a smile which only looked slightly forced, but he saw through it.

"Are you sure?"

"Course." She said, her voice higher than normal.

Tony sighed and took hold of her hand. "Pepper, talk to me, you don't seem fine about this."

"It's nothing," she said, looking at their intertwined hands. "It's just...what if it's weird?" she finally looked at him and saw he wasn't following her thought process.

"What if what's weird?"

"Us." She said quietly.

"Oh." Tony said, nodding. "Wait, what?"

"It's nothing." She said again. "I just thought that, you know, we'd have a little more time together before we...came out." She made a face, hoping he understood. He did. He smiled reassuringly and squeezed her hand tighter.

"I understand." He said softly. "And if you want us to stay secret for a bit longer, that's fine with me."

Pepper looked at him. "You sure?"

"Of course I am." He kissed her and smiled. "I know what's going on and that's all that matters...although I should probably call the papers and tell them not to run that headline-ouch!"

* * *

Three hours later and Tony was regretting ever coming to this stupid 'party'. Just about every high-flyer in the room had wanted to talk to him from the moment he stepped foot through the door and he had seen Pepper a grand total of two times, barely five seconds each the entire time.

He was just about considering jumping off the wagon completely and heading to the bar when a gap in the conversation gave him a chance to slip away. While the group he had been standing with laughed at a totally un-funny joke, he made a break for it and dodged like a bearded ninja through the crowd to the balcony. He breathed a sigh of relief when the cool night air hit his face and he smiled when a familiar form greeted his eyes.

"Fancy seeing you here." He called to Pepper who was leaning on the railings overlooking the Malibu coastline. She turned at the sound of his voice and grinned at him.

"I wondered where you'd run off to." She replied. Tony groaned and walked towards her embrace.

"Don't. It was horrendous. I can't believe you made me come to this thing." He gave her a slow kiss after he made sure no one was looking and leaned his forehead against hers, eyes closed.

"Snap." She giggled. "I could so use a drink right now."

"I'll get them." Tony started to walk back but Pepper grabbed his hand.

"If you go, they'll steal you away and you'll never be heard from again. I'll go." She pecked him on the cheek and then disappeared back into the building.

The first of the two bars the building held was pretty packed, it being the party side of the party, but the second bar set aside in a separate room was much quieter, with only three other people sat at it. She made her way to the end of the bar and sat on one of the stools.

With this being the quieter of the two bars, there was only one bartender, a very young man who looked like he was just about old enough to drink what he was pouring. She watched him as he tried frantically to mix the numerous drinks the man in front of him had ordered.

"Man that kid's slow." A voice came from Pepper's right and she turned towards the source. A tall, blonde haired man with startlingly blue eyes was stood at the very end of the bar next to her, clearly trying to start a conversation. "I could have gotten myself the drink, gotten hammered, knocked some girl up, raised the kid and sent it to college by now." He laughed at his own joke, a sound that grated through Pepper's brain like nails on a chalkboard. He took her wince as a smile and clearly thought he was getting somewhere.

The bartender finally got to Pepper and she smiled warmly at him. "Vodka martini, dry, and scotch on the rocks, please." She handed the boy a note, but her hand was knocked away by the man next to her.

"Drinks on me." He smiled at her. The look on Pepper's face made the bartender stand awkwardly while he waited for her to confirm.

"That's alright, really." She said firmly, hoping to get her point across, and once again handed the boy the money. He took it without waiting and set to making the drinks.

The man didn't let up. "Maybe I should introduce myself, I'm Daniel Lewis, my uncle is hosting this party tonight." His smug grin clearly indicating that he thought this might seal the deal. "And you are...?"

"Not interested." She heard the bartender stifle a laugh at her reply, but it still didn't put the man off.

"Oh come now, how much more ego-battering can you dish out?" he ran a finger up the slit of Pepper's dress but she slapped his hand away.

"I said. Not. Interested." She was beginning to get angry now. The bartender brought the drinks just in time and she snatched them up, standing as quick as she was able. Daniel cut around her and blocked her.

"Hey, most women do not say no to me." He leaned towards her, pushing her against the bar.

"I'm not most women." Pepper said, beginning to regret volunteering to get the drinks.

"Hey!" Tony's voice boomed from the other end of the room. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Daniel turned at the sound of Tony's shouting and smiled. "Tony, my man." He spread his arms out as if to embrace him, but Tony pushed him aside and stood in front of Pepper, facing him.

"I said, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" the few people who were left at the bar were oh so covertly staring at them.

"Oh, she with you, Iron Man?" he grinned again.

"She's my PA, asshole."

"Oh, right, gotcha." He winked at him and lowered his voice. "Say, when she's done 'organising your files', recon she's got a few hours to spare for-"

Daniel never got to finish his sentence because he was interrupted by Tony's fist connecting with his nose. Pepper gasped and pulled on Tony's arm before he could throw another hook. Daniel scrambled up from the floor where he had landed, clutching his dripping nose, and fled from the room.

"You even think about talking to Pepper again and I will personally-"

"Tony!" Pepper yanked on his arm and dragged him out of the bar, all the way out of the building and practically threw him into the limo.

"Back to the mansion please, Happy." She said, not looking at Tony who was examining his hand. A nice red mark was forming on his knuckles. He flexed his fingers experimentally and hissed when the joints protested. "I can't believe you did that." She said. There was a slightly pissed off edge to her voice which threw Tony.

"What?"

"You punched him!" she snapped. "In front of all those people. God the press will have a field day with this. Do you even know who he was?"

"Yeah, he's the sleezeball who was harassing my girlfriend. What was I supposed to do?"

"Oh I don't know Tony." Pepper threw her hands up in desperation. "You could have tried _not_ hitting him?"

"I don't think that would have got the message across." He winced as his fingers throbbed again. "Have we got any bandages or anything in here?"

Pepper sighed heavily and routed around under the seat for the first aid box. She located it and roughly yanked a roll of bandage out, throwing it at him and snapping the box closed again.

"What's wrong with you?" Tony asked, beginning to get a tad annoyed with how she was acting.

"I was handling the situation perfectly fine-"

"Yeah, looked like it from where I was standing-"

"You didn't have to punch him!"

"Oh, I get it, I can go off here, there and everywhere _killing _terrorists, but I'm not allowed to defend the woman I love from drunken guys who can't take no for an answer? What the hell is up with that? I think I may have broken at least two knuckles here and now I gotta get a lecture about it? Why are you looking at me like that?" Tony stopped winding the bandage around his hand when he noticed Pepper was staring at him.

"What did you just say?" she said breathlessly. Tony scrunched his eyebrows up.

"I think I've broken my knuckles?"

"Before that."

"I go around killing terrorists..."

"After that."

Tony's rage addled brain searched around for what he'd said...and then it hit him. The anger disappeared immediately and a slow smile spread across his face.

"The woman I love?"

"That bit." She stammered. "That bit right there." She was fighting a smile herself, clearly thinking he hadn't meant it to slip out, and to be fair he hadn't meant to say it now, certainly not like this, but amidst all the chaos that had just happened, it felt right. Natural.

He pushed himself off his seat and shuffled over to her on his knees, now at eye level with her as she was sat down. He reached up with his good hand, brushed some hair from her face and took a deep breath.

"Pepper, in the nine years I've known you, you've seen me on the worst days of my life. You've seen me drunk, beaten up, and many a time in the midst of a heated sex session. You've been my rock, both business wise and emotionally the entire time. You've stuck with me through thick and thin, and if you don't know how undeniably in love with you I am by now, then we've got some serious problems." He looked her square in the eyes. "I'm so in love with you, it hurts. Literally." He raised his bandaged hand and she started giggling.

"I love you too." She said. The look on Tony's face made her heart swell. He kissed her, trying to show her without words just how he felt.

They were too lost in each other to hear the low buzz of the rising glass partition, giving them all the privacy they could ask for.

* * *

Three months passed quickly for Tony. The 'fight' at the party had made the papers, but nothing major had come from it, so good was Pepper at her job she had even gotten Daniel Lewis to apologise to both her and Tony.

Now, as he lazed around the mansion waiting for Rhodey to turn up, he noticed how empty the place looked without Pepper there. She had gone out earlier that day to run a few errands after managing to get a day of peace for the both of them, partly for their sake as they hadn't managed to have much quality time together for a few days, and partly because she knew Tony would want to have some guy time with his best friend.

He gazed around and noted how more and more of Pepper's personal things had started taking up residence in his house. The drawers and closet in his bedroom now contained a large amount of her clothing, her toothbrush had moved into his bathroom and there were various books, CD's and DVD's scattered around the lounge. Just as he was wondering how best to broach the subject of her _actually_ moving in, Jarvis alerted him to Rhodey's arrival.

"Let him in, Jarvis." Tony said, standing up and heading to the door. He opened it to see Rhodey's convertible pulling up. As he got out and walked up to the door, Tony saluted.

"At ease, soldier." Rhodey said, smiling.

Tony grinned back and gave him a hug. "Good to see you, man." He stepped back and let Rhodey into the house. "How've you been?"

"Na-uh, you first Iron Man." Rhodey wagged a finger at him. "I told you I'd want a laugh when I got back. How'd it go with the ring?"

"Oh yeah." Tony laughed and they sat down on the couch. "Well, it didn't go great."

Rhodey eyed Tony suspiciously. "You didn't give it to her, did you? Thank God." Rhodey threw himself back onto the couch and sighed.

"No I didn't. You don't have to look so relieved." He shoved the Colonel in the shoulder.

"So what happened?"

"Well, I was going to give it to her when she got to the house, before we left...but she distracted me-"

"You can skip this part; I don't want to know that badly."

"-and then when we got in the limo, she was freaking out slightly about us 'coming out' so I didn't think it was the best time to give it to her then, and then I got into a fight-"

"Whoa, what?"

"Well I punched a guy. Daniel Lewis? He was hitting on Pepper and wasn't taking no for an answer, so I socked him, bruised my knuckle," He pointed to his hand as if to clarify the matter. "So that _really_ wasn't the best time to give it to her."

"And then what?"

"_Then_, we -me and Pepper- got into a fight about me punching the guy, and then..." he smiled at the memory.

"...and then..." Rhodey made a 'get on with it' motion with his hands.

"And then I told her I'm in love with her, and she said it back." He had a fully fledged grin on his face, and Rhodey followed suit.

"Finally!" he exclaimed. "But why didn't you give her the ring then?"

"I decided I agreed with you." He said. Rhodey gave him a confused look. "You said that when Pepper looked at the ring, she'd automatically think it was an engagement ring...and I decided that I'm not against her thinking that when the time comes to give it to her." If anything, Tony's grin grew wider.

"You mean you're gonna propose?" Rhodey said, dumbfounded.

"That's the plan." Tony laughed at the expression on Rhodey's face.

"Wow." He said. "I didn't think you were a plan making kind of guy." He shook himself out of his trance and slapped Tony on the back.

"Neither did I, man, neither did I."

Their attention was stolen then as a phone started ringing. Tony recognised it as Pepper's BlackBerry and he walked over to it on the kitchen counter.

"She's probably ringing to see if she's left it somewhere." Tony muttered as he picked it up. "Helloooooo?"

"Uh, yes, hello, this is Doctor Meyer calling for Miss Potts." A female voice replied at the other end.

"She's not in right now and I don't think she'll be back til this evening. Can I take a message for her?" Tony asked, leaning against the counter to face Rhodey, who began making childish faces to get Tony to laugh.

"I'm afraid I can only talk to Miss Potts or her next of kin." The woman said.

"Well I'm pretty sure I'm her next of kin, Anthony Stark?" he said through gritted teeth as he tried not to laugh at Rhodey.

"One moment please." He could hear tapping of a keyboard. "Ah yes, ok, well it was just a quick call to let Miss Potts know that the blood tests showed nothing negative and for her not to worry about the scan, both she and the baby are perfectly healthy."

Tony's heart stopped. His brain ceased to function. Rhodey saw this and added it with the 'next of kin' to create a horrendous scenario in his head.

"Tony, what happened?" he got up and walked over to him as Tony hung up the phone. "Dude, is Pepper ok?"

Tony nodded and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.

"Pepper's pregnant."

**TBC

* * *

**

For the record, I _know_ hospitals and doctors aren't allowed to give out medical information to people other than their patients, but there was literally no other way this would have worked otherwise. And there was more to be added to the end, but I'll have to shove that in the next chapter because this is nearly 4,000 words long.


	9. She's Everything

Howdy! Well, this fic has held a lot of firsts for me, it's been the first Pepperony saga I've started writing, and it's also held my first flame! How exciting. What made me laugh was the person didn't even log in to post it, and they didn't bother to read past the intro bit of the first chapter. Apparently combining the idea of two films to inspire fiction makes no sense. Interesting. Thank you to 'Sasha' for his/her flame. In future, though, labelling a fic as crap doesn't technically come under "constructive criticism". Just a heads up. You should all go read it though, it's pretty lolworthy.

Song of the Day: Brad Paisley – She's Everything

* * *

_Tony's heart stopped. His brain ceased to function. Rhodey saw this and added it with the 'next of kin' to create a horrendous scenario in his head._

"_Tony, what happened?" he got up and walked over to him as Tony hung up the phone. "Dude, is Pepper ok?"_

_Tony nodded and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat._

"_Pepper's pregnant."_

"What?" Rhodey's jaw dropped.

"Yeah." Tony cleared his throat. "That was her doctor on the phone."

"Are you sure?" Tony gave him an 'are you kidding me?' look. "I mean, did she actually say that she's pregnant?"

"She said that the blood work came back fine and there was nothing to worry about and she and the baby are healthy, so I'm pretty sure that translates to 'Tony Stark, you're gonna be a Daddy'." He was still looking like a deer in the headlights.

"Shit." Rhodey sighed. "Man, what are you gonna do?"

Now that was a question. About a million different questions were running through its head. Why hadn't she told him? Was she going to tell him? Was the baby even his? He mentally slapped himself for even thinking that. Of course it was his. Something in his stomach flipped at this. He was going to have a baby, he was going to be a father.

Straightening up, he opened his mouth to reply to Rhodey, but before he could get any words out, Jarvis interrupted him.

"Miss Potts' car is approaching, sir. She appears quite agitated." The AI said.

"I guess I'll find out in a minute." Tony sighed.

"Hey, everything will turn out ok." Rhodey put a reassuring hand on Tony's shoulder and smiled awkwardly. "Congratulations though." He gave him one last slap on the shoulder and then turned to leave. As he opened the door, Pepper barrelled through it and collided with him. "Shit! Pepper, are you ok?"

She gave him a weird look. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine Rhodes. Hey, welcome back! I just came back to see if – oh, thank God, my phone!" she saw it in Tony's hand and smiled at him. "My hero. I was going insane." She rushed over to him and he handed it to her. "Have I missed any calls?"

"Well, I'm gonna…" Rhodey pointed behind him and backed out of the door, closing it quickly.

"He's weird today." Pepper said, smiling at him. When he grimaced rather than smiled, hers faded slightly. "Are you ok?"

He nodded, still an odd look on his face. "I'm, uh, I'm…your doctor called for you, I took the message."

He could see the realisation on Pepper's face as she swallowed nervously. "What did she say?"

"Not much," Tony shrugged. He pushed himself away from the counter he was still leaning on and walked over to the couch. "She said the blood tests came back positive and you're fine."

"Oh," she relaxed a little. "Well that's-"

"Both of you." He looked at her. Her mouth was slightly agape.

"Tony-"

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her gently. He wasn't angry or upset. He honestly didn't know how to feel at that moment, he just wanted answers.

"I was going to, I swear." She stammered.

"When?"

"I was waiting for the tests to come back." Tears were beginning to form in her eyes. "I only found out a few days ago and then I booked a scan. I was having stomach pains so I didn't want to tell you until I knew everything was ok. The doctor said the baby's heart was beating a little fast so they did some tests." She wiped her cheek.

Tony's face softened somewhat. "How far along are you?"

"The doctor said fourteen weeks."

"And you didn't know?"

"I'm not having morning sickness, I'm not showing yet and it's more of a shock when I have a period than when I skip one, so no, Tony, I didn't know." He heard the irritation in her voice and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry." He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. "This is just…I need to…" he strode past her and went down the stairs to his workshop. Pepper stayed stock still, refusing to believe he had just run away. She was jolted out of self pity as her BlackBerry rang. She sniffed and answered it.

"Hello? Uh, yes, Mr. Stark is aware of that. No, of course he will be attending. Yes, yes, ok, ,that's fine. We'll see you then." She pressed the 'end call' button with a little more force than as technically necessary and flopped onto the couch, propping her elbows on her knees and bringing her hands up to her face to try and control herself. She felt like curling up into a ball, but she didn't want to do that here. She was about to get up and leave but stopped sharply when she was faced with Tony standing at the top of the stairs to his workshop. He was staring at a small box in his right hand.

"The first time we slept together, after you'd fallen asleep, I lay awake waiting." He said quietly. "I was waiting for something to kick in and tell me to run away, like it had every other time with every other woman. I realised after about an hour that it wasn't going to happen, and that scared the shit out of me." He looked up at her and walked forwards.

"When I first properly realised I was in love with you, I was waiting for the thing to tell me to run again, more so when I actually told you. Still nothing happened, and that time I wasn't scared. Like, at all." He stopped an arms reach in front of her and got down on one knee.

"Oh…God." Pepper whispered.

"I always thought that if the time came where I was a father, I wouldn't know what to do." Tony continued. "I thought I'd fuck up and run away, but something about you makes the fear go away, and I know this is the right thing to do." He opened the box and took her left hand in his. "Pepper Potts, will you marry me?"

Silence.

More silence.

Tony fidgeted.

"Potts?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah?!"

"No!"

"No?"

"Yeah…"

"Stop." Tony said. "Pepper, yes or no?"

"It's not that simple." She said slowly. Tony stared.

"How is it not simple? You've got to choose between two answers."

"Exactly!" she exclaimed and stood up, skirting around him. She heard the box snap closed and she turned to face him.

"You don't want to marry me?"

"I don't not want to marry you." She replied. At his beyond confused expression, she sighed and closed her eyes. "Tony, you said getting married is the right thing to do, but it's not something you just jump into because you think it's the right thing to do."

"I'm not jumping into this, I've been thinking this over for months, Pepper."

"Well I haven't." she said. "And I honestly think that marriage is a bad idea when the only reason is because it's 'the right thing to do'." She air quoted his words.

"Pepper, the baby needs a family-"

"And it'll have one." She caressed his cheek. "But we don't need to get married for that to happen. I'm not saying that it won't ever happen, but it's not something we need." She could see the disappointed look in his eyes. "Tony, I love you, you know that right?"

"I know." He smiled slightly. "I love you too. I just…I want to do this right." He raised a hand to her stomach and brushed the back of his knuckles across her abdomen. Pepper sighed and kissed him softly.

"You couldn't possibly do this wrong, you'll be a fantastic father."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Are you kidding me?" she smiled at him. "Iron Man for a dad? You'd so win in a 'my dad can beat up your dad' argument."

This brought a reluctant smile to his lips and she kissed him again. "I could pick him up from school in the suit."

"You think I'm going to let any child of mine fly in that thing?" she giggled.

"Not at first." He grinned and wrapped his arms around her.

"Or at all."

"Ah, you'll come round." He kissed her neck. "On both counts." He backed them up until his legs hit the couch and they fell back onto it, Tony's mouth still attached to her neck.

"I think you'll find," she gasped as Tony's hands settled on her rear. "my answer wasn't a straight out no, more of a…not right now." She pulled his head up and kissed him hotly.

"Like I said, you'll come round." He broke the kiss and nuzzled her nose with his. "Will you at least move in?"

"Ugh, you're so demanding!"

**TBC

* * *

**

…which is why I wanted to shove this at the end of the last chapter. It's too short for my liking, but I'm pressed for time and I was _so_ beyond bored today cos I was off work. Plus, reviews make me happy, so a big huge muchas gracias to those who have made this like my 4th highest reviewed fic of all time! Shall we try and make it 1st? 120ish to beat!


	10. Running Up That Hill

So, this set out to be the second or third to last chapter, and I did intend to make it re-he-heally long, but a few things got in my way, namely the fact that I've been on painkillers for four days and I'm pretty out of it, plus the fact that I wrote a big chunk on my Nan's laptop before she went on holiday...and didn't bother to e-mail it to myself. I think it panned out ok though. This is actually probably the third to last chapter tbh. It's going to take a darker turn from here on out, so beware, no more fluff I'm afraid.

P.S. Shout out to thatpersonwhoisthatperson for bringing the total of reviews to 69 and thus making me chuckle like the childish person I am when I realised.

P.P.S. After nearly an hour trying to find the information, I gave up and guestimated how long it'd take to fly from LA to Moscow. Seriously, five airline sites couldn't even tell me. And I have no concept of time-zones. Enjoy!

Song of the Day: Placebo – Running Up That Hill (far better than Kate Bush's)

* * *

The months practically flew by. Pepper had moved in with Tony officially a month after his proposal, and although he had contested her decision to decline it, she stood firm.

The only thing that had caused them any sort of argument had been, shock horror, the media.

Pepper had begun to show a bump mid-way through her fourth month, which in turn had caused a minor media stir. There had been roughly three headlines a week for a further month proclaiming it to be Tony's love child, and while that was true, he was beginning to get a wee bit pissed off about it.

"I mean what right do they have to print this stuff?" he huffed, throwing down that morning's paper which was insisting Pepper was some sort of man-trap, and flopping down on the couch next to her.

"Free speech?" Pepper suggested, picking up the paper and turning to the more interesting articles. She'd been very blasé about the whole thing, something else that was irritating Tony as many of the articles were slanderous against her.

"How can you be this nonchalant about all this?" he leant back into the couch and closed his eyes

"I've been dealing with this kind of stuff for years for the both of us. Water off a duck's back." She said, peering over the top of the paper and smiling. When his face still showed tension, she sighed and put the paper down, moving over to him and straddling his legs. His eyes snapped open and he couldn't help the smirk roll over his lips.

"This is really bothering you, isn't it?" she asked.

"Well I'll tell you what _is_ bothering me." He raised an eyebrow.

"Tony-"

"Alright, yes, it is." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm more than used to hearing stuff about me, hell, half the time it's true anyway, but this crap about you, it's…"

"Yeah, I know." She kissed the top of his head. "Maybe it's time we came out properly." She mumbled against his cranium. He chuckled and scratched his head.

"It could keep the wolves at bay, but then again it might make it worse."

"Tony, I read an article the other day that was insisting I was having a lesbian love affair with Sue from accounting and I'm wearing a pregnancy suit to cover it up, I think it's gotten as bad as it's going to get." She laughed at his stunned expression. "Don't worry, it's not true."

"Very funny." Tony said bluntly. "Are you sure though? About us telling the press?"

"I've got enough to worry about without fearing you'll have a coronary every time you open the paper." He started to protest but she cut him off. "Look, I'm only going to get bigger as the pregnancy progresses, we've got nothing bad to hide, in fact we'll probably look like we do the longer we put it off. So come on Stark, suck it up." She patted his cheek and got off him. "I'll set up a press conference for tomorrow."

"No," he grabbed her around the waist and span her to sit back down on the couch. "I'll sort it. Gotta learn how to do things myself for when you're on maternity leave, and yes, you are taking it." He added before she could object.

"Spoilsport." She mumbled as he walked away.

* * *

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Pepper said as they got into the limo the following morning. The press conference had gone on an extra hour longer than expected but had cleared up a lot of misinformation, including Pepper's lesbian love affair. Tony had made a short speech saying that they were a couple and expecting a child and then left the floor open for questions, and boy where there questions. Was it his child? Were they getting married? When was she due? When had the relationship started? Was it true they were naming the baby Megatron? Was he _sure_ it was his child? That one had pissed Tony off the most, so much so he had the third reporter to ask the question thrown out.

"Could have gone worse I suppose." He mumbled, closing the door and indicating to Happy to drive on. "Just glad it's over and there won't be any more random articles. I mean Megatron? Really?"

"Now come on, that was funny." She laughed and huddled against him on the seat. "I think we should consider it as a middle name."

"Over my dead metal body." He wrapped his arm around her middle. "Although we should probably start thinking of names."

"No." she said sharply. Tony stared. "Sorry, just…not yet." She said. "It's too early, I don't want to jinx it."

"Fair enough." He kissed the top of her head. "We've got months yet anyway."

"Mmm." She mumbled, closing her eyes. "Your pocket is vibrating, should I be worried?"

Tony fumbled for his front pants pocket and groaned when he saw the caller ID 0000-000-000. He pressed a button on the arm rest beside him to raise the partition separating themselves from the driver and then answered the call.

"Mr. Fury, how would you like to disrupt my life today?" he heard Pepper sigh softly out of irritation.

"Oh Stark, how I've missed your natural charm and wit." Fury replied in a monotone voice. "Unfortunately, as is the case more often than not, it is not I who is 'disrupting' your life, more so the SI weapons convoy that will be under attack in a matter of hours unless you get your butt down there." Fury's voice took a mean turn and Tony winced.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, what's the story? Happy, home as quick as possible please." He pressed another button to speak over the intercom and then another to get Jarvis to prepare the suit for his immediate departure.

"We've had intel from our agent in Moscow that a temporary weapons cache is going to be seized in transit. Fabulous location idea by the way." He added sarcastically.

"Moscow? You gotta be kidding me." he glanced at Pepper. "Do you remember me signing a weapons transfer through Moscow?"

"According to our records this particular cache is at least twenty years old and is old stock to be destroyed upon returning to the US." Fury said. Pepper confirmed this.

"Do we know who's after it? Or even what the stock is?"

"It's a small Russian mob group who've been terrorising Moscow for some time now. Luckily they're not amazingly organised which was how we managed to get the information so quickly. They're planning to attack as the cache moves towards the border with Belarus tomorrow night, but we don't know what they plan to do from there, so try and keep one of them with the ability to talk. All the other information has been relayed to your computer." He heard the click of Fury putting the phone down and Tony did the same as they pulled up the drive to the mansion. He sighed and looked at Pepper.

"So…Moscow?" she said brightly.

"Yeah," he smiled apologetically. The limo stopped and he heard Happy open and close his door and then step around to Tony's, opening it for him. Tony stepped out, thanking him, and then took Pepper's hand as she got out.

"Big job?" she asked as they walked straight down to his workshop via the garage ramp.

"Shouldn't be. Fury said the group I'm going after is pretty much a bunch of amateurs." He pressed his palm to the sensor and the doors opened. They continued down to the workshop and Tony immediately walked over to his computer, absorbing the information Fury had sent and then transmitting it to the suit. Pepper watched him as he did so from her position leaning against his Audi. "Suit ready to go Jarvis?"

"Ready when you are, sir." The bodiless voice informed him.

"Excellent." He finished transmitting the information and walked over to the small chest of drawers where he kept the neoprene under suits and pulled one out, turning back to Pepper as he did so. He noted the expression on her face and faltered slightly. "Pep?"

"How long will you be gone?" she asked quietly. She was chewing her bottom lip and looking, if anything, guilty. Puzzled, he stripped off his jacket and walked over to her, throwing it onto a table as he did so.

"Hopefully the day after tomorrow." He stood in front of her. She nodded slowly, still chewing her lip. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, it's just...the baby's scan is on Wednesday." She shrugged, still looking guilty.

Realisation hit him in the face like a mallet. "Shit." He mumbled and closed his eyes in frustration. It was two days away.

"Hey, don't worry." She raised a hand to his cheek and smiled. "I'll rearrange it."

"No." He said sharply. "No, I'll make it back, I promise."

"Tony, it's fine, I can just-"

"Pepper, look, I made you a promise that I wouldn't let this get in the way of us, and God as my witness I intend to keep that promise." He turned the corner of his mouth up and kissed her softly. "I'll punch it all the way there and all the way back; I'll be back before you know it." He let his hand wonder to her stomach and he rubbed his thumb across the prominent bump. She smiled.

"That tickles." She shoved his chest gently. "Ok fine, go. The quicker you leave the quicker you'll get back."

Tony kissed her one last time and was changed and blasting off within ten minutes.

* * *

He was running on fumes.

Even flying supersonic for the entire journey to Moscow, it had still taken him five hours. He had rendezvoused with the SHIELD agent on the Russian side of Belarus, only to find the convoy had been pushed forward a few hours, meaning he'd had literally half an hour to prepare before the fighting began.

Turns out the "amateurs" were extremely heavily armed, though nothing that Tony couldn't deal with, and he'd even managed to keep them all conscious and able to talk. There was a minor panic when one of the trucks momentarily caught fire, but other than that everything had run smoothly.

He'd gone back to the Russian SHIELD base for a quick de-brief and a well deserved nap after dropping off the 'guests' and he was now coasting his way back to Malibu on autopilot, Jarvis promising him he'd be back home for Tuesday night, the night before Pepper's scan, giving him a chance to conserve some energy and to mentally prepare for seeing his baby for the first time. He had a mix of giddy excitement and un-holy shit scariness buzzing around his stomach, and he found it was damn near one of the best feelings he'd ever experienced.

He was just considering having another quick doze when the HUD indicated he had an incoming call. Smiling at the picture that followed, he answered.

"Hey, hon-"

"Tony, where are you?" Pepper asked breathlessly.

Fear ripped through Tony at the tone of her voice. "Almost out of Portugal, should be in the Atlantic within half an hour, what's wrong?"

Through the phone, he heard a deep groan of pain and another woman's hushed curses.

"Pepper, who's there? Are you ok? Pepper!" he shouted when she didn't answer.

"No, I'm fine, it's just – oh my God." He heard a man scream in pain and then the clatter of plastic on tile.

And then a woman's scream.

And then the line went dead.

**TBC**


	11. What A Shame

A few things to clear up here before we begin:

1. Major apologies for the lateness. Blame 4persephone and Neon Daisies for their God-damn addicting fics.

2. I aim to have this finished by the 7th, but I foresee another two chapters and I'm going away on the 7th to The Queen Of Sin's so I'm thinking my original plan to get this finished before the last airing of IM2 was a bit ambitious...speaking of which...

3. Iron Man 2 – Oh. My. Shit. You will literally have an aneurism over the awesomeness. It funny, terribly sweet on Pepperony and the graphics, especially in Tony's workshop, are out of this world. Doesn't the follow the book as much as the first one though, which kinda sucked, but still.

4. I was planning to kick the rating back to T because I'm not planning smut, but thinking of what's coming, it's gonna stay M, if only for the delicate content, which you will be warned of at the beginning of the next chapter.

5. As you may find out whilst reading, I am in no way a scientist. What I've written is completely, totally and 100% bullshit. Unless it would work, in which case I'm a genius.

Song of the Day: Shinedown – What A Shame

* * *

"Pepper?!" Tony yells again. The line is still dead. "Jarvis, call Pepper, now." Jarvis complies and Tony is then met with the three most infuriating beeps he has ever heard, informing him that his call cannot be connected and he should try again later.

"Fuck! Call the house." He snaps. Once again Jarvis dials the number and this time it rings...and rings, and rings, finally getting through to Jarvis' own voice telling him that no one can take his call. He curses again.

"Jarvis, what's going on in the house?" he asks as the coast of Portugal disappears below him, replaced with the calming blue of the Atlantic Ocean.

"I'm afraid I don't know, sir." Jarvis says.

"Well check dammit!" Tony's voice rises even further. "And for God's sake speed us up. Divert everything to thrusters."

"I am unable to perform both tasks sir." Jarvis replies in his infuriatingly calm voice.

"You're the most intelligent computer in the entire world and you're telling me you can't return to your central server and monitor the house?" Tony incredulously replies.

Jarvis pauses for a moment. If he weren't a robot, Tony would swear he was counting to ten.

"Might I remind you sir; I am built into the suit to monitor you. Returning to the mansion would mean cutting myself from the suit, leaving you without power according to protocol nineteen of your own request." He finally said. "I can, however, perform your second request."

Tony felt a phenomenal increase in speed and he adjusted his flight path accordingly, making a mental note to create a way for Jarvis to transmit back and forth between servers once he got back.

"What's our ETA?" he asked. Due to the near light-speed he was travelling, a miniscule shadow of the United States could be made out way, way in the distance.

"We will re-enter the USA in approximately twenty-seven minutes, with time of arrival home at forty-five minutes." Jarvis brought up the figures on his HUD. "I would suggest letting me take over on auto-pilot if you wish to achieve these times, sir." The AI didn't wait for Tony to confirm before taking control. "Might I also suggest arranging to see a doctor immediately. The speed you are currently travelling may negatively impact your spine and neck, even with the suit's protection."

"I don't care if my neck breaks, as long as it happens after I know Pepper's safe." He muttered. "Call her again."

'The hatches in the roof need to have a quicker motor in them.' Tony thought as he smashed through the only half way open metal doors in his roof. He braced himself above the set in the floor of the living room and looked around, flipping the face plate up as he did so. He noticed a plastic phone casing to his left and slightly beyond that the smashed remnants of what had once been Pepper's BlackBerry. The screen had been cracked and the scroll ball had been popped out, as had some of the keys.

'Well, that solves one mystery.' He thought. Nothing else appeared to be damaged, though this did nothing to settle the intense nausea in his stomach. "Jarvis?" he muttered.

"Yes, sir?" the AI answered, this time from above his head. Clearly his suit had re-connected with the central server.

"What the hell happened here? And where's Pepper?" he stepped forwards, away from the hole in the floor.

"Approximately one hour ago, Miss Potts was preparing herself a snack when a male and female approached the front gates. The male appeared to be in quite a bit of pain, judging from the sounds he was making. The woman identified herself as Elizabeth Ross but I was unable to identify the male, at which point I consulted Miss Potts."

"And what? She let them in? Just like that?" Tony asked, bewildered.

"I was able to bring up a visual of the visitors; Miss Potts assessed it and then let them in." Jarvis clarified.

"And then what happened?" Tony stepped as lightly as the suit would allow him towards the front door. Apart from Pepper's BlackBerry, there appeared to be no other sign of a struggle. He didn't know if this made him feel better or not.

"Miss Ross aided her companion through the door but he collapsed in agony. After a brief conversation with Miss Potts, she placed a call to you, but she dropped her telephone in shock when the man screamed again. She then helped Miss Ross escort the man into one of the guest bedrooms."

Tony stopped walking. "What? You mean Pepper's still here?"

"Affirmative, sir. She is currently in the first left bedroom of the guest wing." Jarvis said, as if this was glaringly obvious.

"Son of a-" Tony about-turned and marched towards the aforementioned room, bursting through the door when he arrived. The sight that greeted him chilled him to the bone.

Both Pepper and the other woman were forcibly holding Bruce Banner down to the bed as he writhed in completely silent but extremely obvious agony. Ross was trying to calm him down by talking soothingly to him, but it didn't appear to be working. Pepper's head spun around when she heard Tony enter, her face both a mix of extreme tension and spine tingling fear.

"Tony, help." She said breathlessly. Ross' head jerked up when she heard his name, her expression much the same as Pepper's.

"Get out of the way." Tony said gruffly, moving forward. Pepper jumped away from Banner as quickly as she could, but Ross stayed where she was.

"This is the worst I've ever seen him." She said to Tony. "He's been sedated."

"Clearly." Tony snorted. Banner began to thrash more wildly now that Pepper wasn't holding him down, so Tony did the only thing he could think of and punched Banner in the side of the head. His body went limp instantly. "There."

"Tony!" Pepper shrieked.

"It's ok, he can take it." Ross said to her.

"How much sedative has he had?" Tony asked.

"Enough to floor a herd of elephants." Ross muttered, stroking Banner's face and checking his head for and bleeding from the punch.

"Ok, can someone please explain to me what the hell is going on!?" Pepper hissed through gritted teeth.

Tony and Ross looked at each other before Ross stepped forward.

"I'm Betty Ross, this is Bruce Banner," she indicated to the man on the bed. "He has a…condition that was brought on by Gamma Ray poisoning back when he worked for the military. There was an incident at the lab we worked in and he got caught in an explosion a few years ago."

"And this exposure causes him to convulse?" Pepper asked. Both Tony and Ross smiled grimly.

"No, it's something a little more serious than that." Tony sighed. "The top and bottom of it is he transforms into a big green Hulk when he gets pissed. Something about his heart rate if I remember correctly." He turned towards Ross. "Though I don't remember him convulsing or anything the last time."

"Yeah well, never let it be said that Bruce doesn't like to be creative." She sighed. "He's been trying to create a cure or at least a preventative measure for months, and he finally thought he'd cracked it. That's why we're here." She shuddered. "Bruce said that if this serum went wrong, you'd be the 'last hope'"

Tony's brow furrowed. "But I'm not much of a scientist; I wouldn't know where to start, especially with him."

"Tony Stark wouldn't be able to help, but Iron Man would." Ross said grimly.

"Oh God." Pepper whispered, realisation dawning on her. Tony followed suit soon after.

"I'm the only one that can stop him." He said grimly. Betty closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Hopefully it won't come to that." She said finally. "We've brought some medical and scientific equipment with us. Before this," she waved her hand at Bruce's limp body. "He was talking about ways to alter the serum."

"I don't understand, how the hell did he do this to himself? _What _did he do to himself?" he gravitated over to Pepper, who was looking more and more green as the conversation went on.

"Like I said, he was trying to create a cure, he failed." She sat on the bed next to him and Tony stiffened instinctively, but calmed when he noted the serene look on Banner's face when she touched him. "He was fine for the first couple days, his heart rate was down, he said he felt normal. Then about three days ago he woke up in the middle of the night screaming in pain, and it's been pretty much this ever since. We left as soon as it started but we've had to go underground." At the look on both Tony and Pepper's faces, she explained. "Bruce used to work under my father's division before the explosion and dad's always kinda hated him, especially now I'm involved."

"Never made his resolution stick then?" Tony asked, smiling lightly.

"He told me about that," Betty said, returning Tony's expression. "Poor soul never stood a chance with the General." She looked over at Pepper and Tony, mainly how she could pretty much see the air of protectiveness exuding from Tony. "I'm glad to see you made yours though." She turned back to Bruce and ran a hand through his hair. "He should be out for a couple of hours at least, I'll let you know if he starts to change again."

Tony and Pepper correctly took this as a sign for them to leave and slowly backed out of the bedroom, Pepper closing the door behind them. She exhaled heavily and leaned against the wall next to the door.

"Come on." Tony grasped her hand as gently as he could and led her through the hall and down to the workshop. As he began the process of removing the suit, Pepper shakily made her way over to his desk and leant against it. She closed her eyes and tried to let the mechanical whirring of the bots drown out the horrific screams still running through her head. She didn't even move when the noises stopped, but she let out a squeak when Tony wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her against him roughly, burying his head in her neck.

"Tony, what-"

"God, you scared the shit out of me." Came his muffled reply. He squeezed her tighter and let out a ragged breath. "I didn't know if you were hurt or not, it was the longest hour of my life flying back."

"I'm fine." She said, rubbing soothingly over his back. Tony's only response was to pull her impossibly closer, so much so that his Arc was beginning to indent in her chest. "Tony, the baby needs oxygen." She said in what she hoped was a joking manner. Tony sprang away from her instantly and she instantly regretted it.

"Shit, sorry." He placed a gentle hand on her stomach and a small smile made its way across his face, making Pepper calm slightly.

"We're fine." She said again. "Is Bruce going to be ok?"

The smile vanished from Tony's face and he shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I've tried convincing him to come to SHIELD headquarters and have the scientists look at him there, but he refuses." He sighed heavily and pulled Pepper over to the couch and sat them both down on it, Pepper on his lap. "I'll try and help him as much as I can, but I don't know how much I can do for him." He wrapped his arms around Pepper again, a little lighter this time and rested his head against her bump.

"I'm sure you'll be able to figure this out." She whispered to him, running her fingers through his hair and kissing the top of his head.

"How can you be so sure?" he asked, raising his head and looking her square in the eye. She surprised him when she smiled wryly.

"Well, he seems to think he was on to something before he even got here. Are you telling me you're not as smart as Banner?" she mock-gasped. "The great Anthony Stark defeated by a mere mortal, whoda thunk it?"

Tony blinked at her, and then a slow smile spread across his lips. He pulled her head down and kissed her long and slow.

"Pepper, I honestly don't know how you do it." He chuckled.

"What?"

"Make me love you without even trying." He said, and kissed her again.

* * *

Over the ensuing weeks, Tony converted his secondary garage into what was effectively a scientist's wet dream. He and Banner had discussed the basics of what they would need to create and test any new serums and Tony had supplied the equipment. No one knew that either Betty or Banner where hiding out in the Stark mansion, and Banner had no qualms about keeping it that way for all their sakes.

He'd gone in depth about Betty's father, explaining exactly what the General wanted out of him and why it was crucial that either the cure or the alternative measure be followed through. And as far as SHIELD was concerned, Banner was AWOL.

Banner wasn't stupid, he knew he was little more than a grunt to both SHIELD and the Initiative, and they more than wanted to keep him that way, so it was pretty safe to say that they'd have a few issues with him trying to cure himself, something that Tony brought up during their first proper conversation.

"I mean I get why you want to get rid of him, don't get me wrong," Tony had said. "But I mean have you ever considered just learning to control him? There's gotta be some way of doing it if it's all down to stress."

"I did try." Banner had replied. "I really, really tried. I thought I had him under control. I'd gone about a month without an accident and then the smallest thing set him off. I don't even remember what it was, but because I was so calm I went from zero to green in three seconds." He shook his head. "That's what made me decide, I hurt Betty." His face grew stony and he made eye contact with Tony. "I will _never_ let myself do that again. I'd rather face the alternative."

Tony sighed but placed a hand on Banner's shoulder. "I'll help you, no matter what the help entails."

After that, it was just a case of trial and error. More often than not it was error, especially since Banner was still feeling the effects of what his first serum had done to him. Barely a night went by that the entire household wasn't woken up by screams of pain.

They were making progress, however, after the eleventh week and three nights of no interruptions. Banner himself had said he was feeling different.

"Ok, so how are we doing?" Tony asked as he entered the garage-slash-lab. Banner looked up from his work station and smiled gently.

"Well, don't be holding a parade for me just yet, but I think I might have cracked it."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "The cure?" he moved around to the computer Banner was stationed at and scanned the screen.

"Well if not the cure at least a serum to get rid of whatever the hell I did to myself the first time." He shuddered and pointed to a specific part of the chemical theory Tony was staring at. "See, what I did first was I combined carbon and palladium with all that," he indicated another bunch of equations, "and I think the palladium was reacting badly with both the carbon and me, so what I did instead was just take out the palladium." He tapped a few keys on the computer and a new chemical theory sprang up.

"So you're pretty much injecting pure carbon into yourself?" Tony stared at him.

"Amongst a whole other mess of crap, yeah." Banner chuckled. "Because of the gamma poisoning, my body is reacting way different to how a normal person would with all these chemicals floating around, so I can take it, as much as Betty refuses to believe me." He sighed.

Tony laid a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Look, once this is done, it's done. You can go back to playing happy families." He smiled and slapped Banner's shoulder, standing up from his chair. "Now, let's get to work."

* * *

Merely a week of constant scientific mastery later, Tony and Banner finally managed to finish the serum with only a few minor explosions. Pepper and Betty had been banned from coming down to the garage and neither men had left it for the entire week apart from to eat and use the bathroom, so when the final touches to the chemical goop lying in front of them were done, it felt like a lifetime had been lifted off their shoulders.

Banner lifted the beaker of dark greeney-grey broth and studied it against the light.

"So, what's the plan now?" Tony asked, shuffling his feet slightly in agitation. "I mean, do you inject it or what?"

To his surprise Banner shrugged. "Well that's reassuring." Tony deadpanned.

"Last time I did it, I injected it, but I think if I'd drunk it, it would have had time to break down correctly and do its job instead of nearly killing me." He said. "Saying that, because this is chemically different to the last batch, slightly weaker, I don't think it'd do the same damage." He bit the side of his bottom lip and snorted through his nose. "Well, I guess we'll find out. See you on the other side, Stark." He tipped the beaker towards Tony slightly, and before he could stop him, downed the liquid on one gulp.

"Fuck, Banner you ass." Tony stumbled over to his friend and pried the beaker out of his hand. Banner looked at him and licked his lips, then his face contorted into one of mild disgust. "What? What is it?"

"Ugh," Banner threw himself over to the sink in the corner and dove under the tap, gulping down as much water as he could. "It tastes like…like coconut and metal." He shuddered and gargled the water in his mouth. "I hate coconut."

Tony laughed, a noise combining mild amusement and a great deal of shock, rubbing his hand over his face to calm himself. "If you throw up, you clean up." He removed his hand when no reply came from the other man. He was hunched over the sink, breathing heavily. "Hey, I meant that you know."

Suddenly, Banner shuddered again, gripping the edges of the sink so hard his knuckles turned white. Fear shot up Tony's back.

"Jarvis, what's Banner's heart rate at?" he moved over to help but Banner held a hand up.

"Doctor Banner's heart rate is currently 180bpm and he is experiencing symptoms of tachycardia, I recommend sending for an ambulance." Came the crisp British accent above them.

"Bruce, you gotta calm down man." Tony said softly. Banner let out a small gasp of pain and doubled over.

"Get out." He rasped. Tony stood stock still. Banner span around and glared at Tony with shocking green eyes. "Stark, get everyone out!" he shouted and then yelled in pain again, clutching his ribs.

"Bruce?" a female voice came from the doorway. Betty was standing there and Tony rushed over to her. "Tony, what's wrong with him?" her face paled at the sight.

"We need to move, now." He dragged her through the door and back up to the house, but she fought him.

"Stark, what the hell did he do?"

"He drank what he made, didn't bother to test anything first, we need to evacuate the house now!" Betty still didn't comply.

"I need to help him." She said but Tony pushed her up against the wall of the corridor, gripping her by the biceps.

"Listen to me, he's changing and this time he has no control whatsoever. You and Pepper need to get out of here now! I'll try and contain him." He shook her when she looked towards the sounds of agony again. "Betty, please, just get Pepper out safe, I promise he'll be fine." He lied. He had to. Even Betty knew it, but she complied when she saw the fear in his eyes. She all but ran back up to the main house and Tony sprinted back to his workshop.

"Jarvis, prep the suit." Tony shouted as he entered. He didn't have time to change so he stepped up to the bots in his jeans and t-shirt. "Keep an eye on Banner."

"Doctor Banner has exited the garage and is making his way around the perimeter of the house. I can no longer track his health but his body was under a large amount of stress upon leaving." Jarvis said.

"Where's Pepper?" he asked as the final pieces of the suit slotted together.

"Miss Potts and Miss Ross are exiting the house via the front door. At this moment in time they are fifty feet away from Doctor Banner."

"What?!" Tony yelled. He exited the bots grasp a little too early and heard a rather annoying snap as one of the arms must have sheared a bolt.

"Sir, I find this most strange, but Doctor Banner's entire physical structure has altered. He still appears to be in quite a lot of pain."

"No!" Tony kicked off from the ground and through the ceiling and immediately saw the great lumbering outline of the Hulk making a beeline for Betty and a seven months pregnant Pepper running in the opposite direction. "Banner!" Tony tilted downwards and zoomed towards him.

He collided with the green monster mere feet away from the two women who screamed as the ground shook between them and the force of Tony's collision sent both men hurtling towards the cliff edge at the side of the house. Tony regained his footing quicker than the Hulk who let out a roar of frustration and punched his fist into the ground. Tony blasted towards him again, but Banner batted him away with a flick of his wrist and sent him flying into the wall of the mansion. He barely had time to pry himself from his wall indentation before the Hulk charged into him again, pummelling them both through the wall of the house and into the front room. Tony once again regained his footing quicker than the Hulk and immediately blasted both repulsors at him, sending him flying through his new piano. He ran after him and jumped on the Hulk's back, attempting a choke hold.

"Bruce, you have to calm down!" Tony hissed into his ear. The Hulk merely roared again and grabbed Tony's helmet, pulling him off his back with relative ease and hurling him through his indoor waterfall. Tony hit the stairway behind it and took the blow square in the back, taking a large chip out of said stairs. Once again he didn't have time to recover for the second attack; another tackled forcing them both through the wall and into one of the guest bedrooms, the bed annihilated immediately. Tony managed to time his repulsors to back flip over the green monster and send four blasts to his back.

Banner seemed mildly irritated by this and expressed his displeasure by picking up the large wardrobe (or what was left of it) and swinging it into Tony, sending him flying through the window to the right. He stopped himself mid-air and zoomed back, sending a quick punch to the Hulk's jaw and another two blasts, followed by another choke hold, stronger this time. Banner attempted to grab Tony's helmet again but he dodged the grab, making the Hulk flail behind his back for leverage. Roaring again, he backed them both up into the wall, smashing Tony behind him. And error message flashed on Tony's HUD and Tony groaned as he actually felt the force of the smash.

"Jarvis, flares!" Tony yelled. The small fireworks began to spout out in the minute gap between the suit's front and the Hulk's back, making the latter howl in anger. "Stings doesn't it, you big green bastard!" Tony applied more pressure to the neck between his arms and this time Banner faltered. He smashed once more into the wall and then in a last ditch attempt to get Tony off his back, he ran towards the gap where the window had once been, turning in mid air so that Tony would break the fall.

He didn't have time to think. By the time Tony realised what Jarvis was warning him of, they impacted the ground with a thundering crash. Tony knew he'd broken at least three ribs but he didn't have time to think about that, the Hulk was already up, stumbling slightly and groaning.

"Sir, you have taken critical damage to all defensive aspects of the armour and most weapons are offline," Jarvis' voice brought Tony back to his senses. He jumped out of the crater they had created and took a deep steadying breath.

"Jarvis, divert all power to chest RT." He commanded.

"Sir, I must object. The damage extent could create an expanded blast radius-"

"Jarvis, do not fucking argue with me, just do it!" he yelled as he saw the Hulk regaining his basic motor functions. He heard the low key whirring of the chest RT powering up and braced himself for whatever the hell Jarvis had been trying to warn him of. He found out five second later when the usual high energy blast tripled, not only blasting the Hulk through the entire house, but also throwing Tony backwards towards the cliff's edge. Tony scrambled for something to hold onto as he skidded on his front towards the cliff, finally anchoring himself by digging his gloved fingers into the soil, mere inches from a three-hundred foot drop into the ocean.

He breathed heavily and looked back up at the house, or what had once been a house. It now resembled something akin to Swiss cheese, there where that many holes decorating it. Carefully pulling himself up to stand, he squinted through the dust and rubble ahead of him. Everything seemed calm enough…

"Tony!" he heard Betty scream.

Having no use of his repulsors, he sprinted through the mansion as quick as his metal form would allow and out the other side he had blasted Banner through, stopping abruptly in the driveway and staring at the sight before him.

Betty and Pepper were sitting on the ground next to Banner, who was lying on his front in his human form, completely unconscious and looking like he'd gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson. Blood was seeping from a small cut on his forehead, but what confused Tony was why Betty was more interested in Pepper. And then he saw the steadily reddening patch of concrete beneath Pepper and the way she was clutching her stomach.

Even the miniature Arc Reactor in his chest couldn't stop his heart from freezing.

**TBC**


	12. River

Sorry it's taken me longer than I thought it would to finish this. Didn't think this chapter would hit me so hard. Next chapter should be the last.

**Warning: **this chapter contains material that may be delicate and upsetting to some readers. I had a hard time writing it to be honest. If you're wondering, this is where the whole Saw/Twilight stuff starts to come into play.

Song of the Day: Robert Downey Jr - River

P.S. I know sod all about hospitals, so for the sake of creative licence, just go with me.

* * *

Fifty-nine.

Tony had spent the last two hours double and triple checking this number and still, annoyingly, reaching the same total.

Why the hell would someone go to all the trouble to paint such a large number of dots onto a ceiling tile and then not bother to round up to an even number? It was stupid. He had a good mind to go to the Chief of Medicine and demand to speak to whoever had designed the fucking hospital.

He could have understood if it had just been the one God-damn tile, but it was the same on each one, so the mysterious dotter must have known he was going annoy this shit out of someone with this. Like you need that kind of stress in a hospital.

Yeah, he was definitely going to complain.

The man beside him sighed for the billionth time in five minutes and Tony rotated his head awkwardly to look at him, although instantly regretting it as his neck protested to being moved after two hours of being at a forty-five degree angle on the backrest of his chair.

"I wish you'd stop doing that." He mumbled and he popped his neck loudly. Rhodey winced.

"Pardon me for worrying." He sighed again.

"Join the fucking club, we've got jackets." Tony stood up abruptly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Shouldn't she be out by now?" he asked, more to himself than his companion.

Rhodey shrugged, not that Tony saw this. "It's gonna take as long as it take man." He chewed his bottom lip, afraid of Tony's reaction to his next question.

"Just ask me." Tony said. Rhodey still seemed hesitant so Tony supplied the answer. "He's got pretty fucked up insides, several broken bones and he's in surgery. He's going to be fine though." He rubbed his face with both hands and then ran them through his hair.

"Like I care if he lives or not after this." Rhodey spat. "Look what he's done to you, to Pepper-"

His rant was cut short by Tony laughing. He turned to Rhodes who simply stared at him like a madman.

"You think I blame Banner for this?" he asked, as if this was the most stupid of all conclusions.

Rhodey gaped. "If you don't I can point you in the direction of the psychiatric ward." He said. Tony just chuckled again. "What the fuck is so funny?"

"None of this is Banner's fault, this is all on me." He muttered, his expression morbid. He saw Rhodey mouth 'what the fuck' and shook his head to stop him talking audibly. "Banner came to me for help, and I helped. What Banner turned into was part of my creation as much as his."

"Oh that's a fucking tenuous link if ever I saw one." Rhodey was on his feet now. "He should have known what he was doing to himself instead of steamrolling in like you said. None of this is on you-"

"It's all on me!" Tony yelled. "If I'd listened to Jarvis, none of this would have happened. I didn't need to blast him, I could have suppressed him another way. I..." he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, breathing heavily. "I took major damage to the suit and Jarvis said the chest RT wasn't functioning properly but I used it anyway, and now look what's happened." He gestured limply towards the doors Pepper had been wheeled through. "Fuck." He sunk to the floor and crossed his arms over his knees, burying his head in the space there.

"Tony..." Rhodey ransacked his brain for something to say to comfort Tony, but came up dry. He settled for sitting on the bench nearest to where Tony had crumpled and laid a hand on his now trembling shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done." He finally managed to croak out.

Tony jerked away from Rhodey and stumbled to his feet, heading to the doors on the opposite side of the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Rhodes called after him, but Tony didn't answer, instead throwing the doors open and storming through them. He couldn't handle the level of sympathy and pity in Rhodey's voice, especially when he didn't deserve it.

He stalked down the hallways trying to clear his head, but all he could see behind the thick wall of fog was the look of fear on Pepper's face when she had seen the blood. He would have flown her to hospital, but Jarvis had all but begged him to call an ambulance, rambling a mile a minute about the hazards of flying with the amount of damage he had incurred to the suit. Betty and Banner had ridden in the second ambulance, and Tony had glimpsed one of the medics performing chest compressions on Banner as they sped away.

Another stab of guilt hit Tony's heart and he stopped walking, finding himself in a small cafeteria, empty but for the staff behind the counter and a couple of doctors on their break in the corner. A sudden urge for caffeine drilled away at the back of Tony's brain, moving him towards the counter ahead of him.

He ordered a black coffee, thinking his stomach probably wouldn't appreciate the sickly sweetener added to it, and reached into his pocket for his wallet.

Which he had left (somewhere) at the house.

"Fantastic." He muttered, fumbling around the bottom of his other pockets searching for any shrapnel he might have shoved in them. "I'm a fucking billionaire and I don't have any fucking currency."

"I got it." A man with a ponytail and a beard to rival a pirate's queuing beside him spoke and handed the rather annoyed (read 'scary') looking woman behind the counter enough for Tony's and his own beverages.

Tony blinked at the man. "Uh, thank you." He said softly.

"Don't mention it." The man smirked at Tony and offered his hand to shake, which Tony took. "Joseph Allen, about to become a Dada for the third time, just chalk this up to celebrating." He took a sip of his own coffee and squinted at Tony. "You've got that look." He said.

"What look?" Tony asked, baffled.

"That shit scared look of someone who's about to become a father." Joseph chuckled. "I take it this is your first?" at Tony's nod, a sympathetic look descended over Joseph's face and he steered Tony towards a table. "How long's the missus been in labour?" he enquired.

"I, uh, I don't know if she is." Tony confessed. At Joseph's politely confused look, Tony ploughed on. "She's only at seven and a half months."

"Shit." Joseph breathed and took another swig of coffee. Tony picked at the polystyrene cup in front of him and took a shuddering breath.

"A friend and I got into a fight at home and she took a hit to the stomach." Tony took a swig of his coffee, not caring that it scalded his tongue and throat on the way down. "There was a lot of blood..." he trailed off and stared at a fixed point on the table, determined not to crumble in front of a complete stranger.

He heard Joseph sigh and saw him reach into his coat out of the corner of his eye and pull out his wallet. After a few seconds of fumbling, Joseph flipped over a plastic cover and a couple of photos, all joined at the seams, flipped out of the wallet. He located a specific photo and shuffled his chair closer to Tony, brandishing the photo at him. Tony gazed at the aged picture and after a few seconds realised it was of an incredibly small, skinny baby inside a rectangular incubator.

"That's Jenny." He said softly, smiling at Tony. "She was born at six and a half months. We'd gotten into a car accident and they had to deliver in the ambulance. The doctors condemned her to death straight away, said her lungs simply weren't strong enough to let her survive, let alone the potential damage the crash could have done. They gave her three weeks, tops." He flipped his wallet closed and pulled out his cell phone and after a few button presses, showed Tony a picture of a tall, blonde haired, blue eyed bombshell hanging off of Joseph's own arm, laughing at something. "That's her last week, celebrating her twenty-first birthday." The grin on his face expanded. "Only health issues she came away with was a mild case of asthma which she's pretty much grown out of." He turned the phone back to himself and after one last look he tucked it away again.

"Must have been hell for you, those first three weeks." Tony said sympathetically. Joseph nodded and drained the rest of his coffee.

"Jenny found a quote in a book when she was little and it pretty much sums her up. It goes; 'start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible'." he said to Tony, looking him straight in the eye. "It'll be tough, no doubt about that, and there will come a point where you'll both want to give in," he stood up, crumpled up his cup and threw it in the trash can a few feet in front of him, then turned back to Tony and held out his hand again. "but when you reach the end of your rope, you just gotta tie a knot in it and hold on."

Tony shook his hand and managed a small smile. "Thank you. For the coffee, for the talk..."

"Like I said before, don't mention it." Joseph beamed and then checked his watch. "Crap, I told the missus I'd only be gone ten minutes, she'll be screaming blue murder by now. You'll probably hear her yourself when you go back up." He chuckled and slapped Tony's shoulder before turning and starting for the door. When he reached it, he turned back.

"Just remember, you only need to take the first step in faith, not the whole staircase." And with that, he darted back up to the maternity ward.

Tony slumped back against his chair, swilling the remnants of his now luke-warm coffee around the cup, trying to concentrate on the warm, albeit tiny glimmer of hope that had settled in his stomach, trying to keep it there. All too soon, however, it extinguished, and in its place the fear returned. He threw away what was left of his drink, suddenly feeling extremely queasy and filled with a need to see Pepper. He made his way out of the cafeteria and turned back towards the waiting room he had left Rhodey in, only to see the man himself at the end of the hall, clearly trying to locate Tony.

The hairs on the back of Tony's neck stood on end and he ran towards Rhodey, who turned towards him at the sound of his footsteps.

"Rhodey, what-"

"Pepper's out of surgery, I'll take you to her room." He said quickly. Tony tried to read the expression on his face but got nothing.

"Is she ok?" Tony asked, not moving from the spot he had stopped on.

"The doctor wouldn't tell me anything but what room she's in. I've been trying to find you for the past half hour." He turned back the way he had come and began walking, Tony instantly stepping with him. He hadn't realised how far he had walked, or how long he had been gone (which he had realised was well in excess of an hour after checking his watch), and now noticed he was at the opposite side of the hospital. How he had gotten there without realising was a mystery, one he didn't really care to solve, especially now the feeling of nausea increased the closer they got.

Rhodey was tense, Tony could feel it, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know why. When they finally reached the maternity ward, Tony heard the distant yells of a woman in labour and wondered if it was Joseph's wife, before Rhodey nudged him and indicated to the woman behind the desk they had stopped at.

To the hospital's credit, they performed all the necessary security checks to make sure they weren't letting a complete maniac into Pepper's room, though Tony had to be restrained by Rhodey to stop him from simply leaning over the desk and snatching the room list from the nurse. Finally, after also checking Rhodey's ID, she paged the surgeon, Dr. Bentley.

"How's Pepper?" Tony said as soon as the surgeon was through the door.

"Mr. Stark, should we perhaps take this somewhere more private?" the doctor said softly, and guided them into an empty room to the right.

"Well?" Tony asked, growing more and more impatient. Rhodey placed a hand on Tony's shoulder to calm him down and the doctor sighed.

"Initially, Miss Potts was brought into surgery to stabilise and hopefully prevent her early labour." Doctor Bentley began. "Unfortunately, as surgery progressed, the pregnancy became dangerous to both mother and child and we had to perform an emergency caesarean."

Tony's throat tightened. "But they're ok right? I mean, babies have been born earlier than this and they're ok."

Doctor Bentley sighed and gave Tony an apologetic look. "Mr. Stark, I'm afraid the baby didn't make it."

* * *

They stopped outside the door to Pepper's room and stared at it. Minutes passed and neither men moved.

"Tony?" Rhodey said softly. He saw Tony's Adam's apple bob and he let out a breath he wasn't aware of holding. "The doctor said she should be awake now man." He saw Tony nod and he gave him a gentle nudge. "I'm so sorry."

Tony raised a hand to stop Rhodey and closed his eyes briefly. "Do me a favour? Go and find out what we're supposed to do...after."

"Sure man, anything." He felt Rhodey's hand leave his shoulder and heard his footsteps fade away. Still he couldn't make himself go through the door in front of him.

The hallway was empty of both people and sounds. Joseph's wife had clearly had her child, hence the lack of screaming. He wondered if Jenny would now have a baby brother or sister, and then felt the burn behind his eyes when he realised he hadn't even enquired as to the gender of his own baby.

Taking a deep breath, he broke the spell rooting him to the floor and cracked the door open slowly.

The room was dark, but he could make out the lump under the duvet that was Pepper, curled up into a ball and facing away from the door. He would have thought she was asleep had it not been for the small gasping noises and the jerking movements she kept making. Tony entered the room properly and softly approached the bed, toeing off his shoes as he went. Pepper didn't turn around, so he lifted the duvet and climbed into bed behind her. She melted into him straight away and he buried his head in her hair, pulling her tight against him. He felt her sobbing increase silently and his own tears began to leak out of his eyes. He heard her whisper "I'm sorry" and he realised something.

Science may be holding his heart together, but it could still break.

**TBC

* * *

**

Yeah, I'd done the first page and a half and started finishing the rest at half eight this evening. It's now 12:24am. I would have had this up by Friday but it's taken me til now to work up the courage to finish it.


	13. Eyes Of The Devil

I'd like to thank everyone who has kept reading this thing, and more so to those who reviewed and kept me updating. I will be doing a sequel, but I've got at least one other project, maybe two, that I want to do before hand. The sequel to this will be posted when I've finished it.

Also, the dates at the beginning of this are December 15th 2009 in case anyone is wondering how I added three extra months to the calendar. Tis the other way round in America apparently, just thought I'd keep it in context.

One last thing, I've noticed that throughout the fic, I seem to have gravitated more into Tony's perspective than Pepper's. As such, I've tried to make this more from Pepper's POV, because we need to start seeing Tony, rather than seeing from him, if that makes sense.

Song of the Day: Seether – Eyes Of The Devil

**Edit: I added/changed a bit of this for two reasons. 1). I fudged up the dates of Pepper coming out of hospital and 2). I found a letter that I'd written from Tony to Pepper when I first started this fic which I thought I'd lost. It sucks way less than the teeny tiny one I'd written in replacement. My bad.**

* * *

_Jacob Zachary Stark_

_12.15.2009 – 12.15.2009_

_Taken before we could know him,_

_But forever in our hearts_

Pepper reached out a hand and ran her index finger across the italic golden lettering engraved upon the small, black marble gravestone. The sun, in total opposition to the collective mood of the few people below, beamed down upon it, bouncing its warmth back into Pepper's somehow numb hand. She glanced at the flowers below the stone, and then to the two larger graves to her left.

Three members of the same family, all taken way before their time, leaving behind holes the size of Mercury for the loved ones they left.

She rose to her feet, taking one last look at her son's final resting place, and began the slow, morose walk back towards the waiting car.

Holes was a good way to describe this feeling, she thought, as a new one began it's torturous ripping in the depths of her stomach at the sight of Tony, leaning against the limo, hands shoved in his pockets and his head bowed.

He had only one hole, but it had completely engulfed him. He had barely looked at her since she had returned from the hospital four days before, and merely mumbled unintelligible words to their broken conversation before the funeral. Although he had kept his arm around her and pulled her tight against him during the ceremony, he wasn't really there, and she couldn't really blame him for it.

Tony's wasn't so much a hole as a chasm, and it seemed nothing she could do could suture the edges back together over the expanse of pure grief between them.

She tried a small smile of understanding as he raised his head towards her, but his eyes merely flickered over her before dropping again. He turned quickly to open the door of the limo for her and stared at the top of the door as she stepped in.

She felt a whole new sadness when he didn't sit beside her, but instead on the seat opposite, once again not meeting her eyes, his gaze focused instead on the tips of his fingers clasped together on his knees.

They rode in silence the entire way home. Rhodey had gone home some time before, having been the only other person invited to Jacob's funeral, after offering them both his teary condolences. The private family plot was only fifteen minutes from the house so luckily Pepper didn't need to suffer through the thick tension for too long.

Tony was already popping the door open when the car rolled to a slow stop in front of the house and was halfway towards the front door by the time Pepper stepped out. Happy joined her outside the car and closed the door behind her.

"He's taken this really hard." She said softly, staring at his quickly retreating back. Happy sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, gently nudging her forwards.

"You've both taken this hard, it's to be expected." He stopped when they got to the door and turned her round to face him. "You've got both me and Rhodey here for you, for both of you, and it'll take a while but you'll pull through this." He offered her a sympathetic smile, but Pepper shook her head.

"He's barely looked or spoken to me for a week, Happy. He's spent the last three days in the workshop and doesn't come to bed until I'm asleep." She said, holding back a sniff. "In fact, I'm pretty sure he didn't even make it that far last night, he was up when I woke up, I just assumed he'd woken up before me."

"Just talk to him Pepper." Happy sighed. "You're both in the same place."

Pepper nodded and gave him a quick hug before stepping into the house.

The quiet, empty house.

Tony had quite obviously gone straight down to the workshop after ridding himself of his jacket and tie, the offending items thrown on the couch in a heap. Pepper picked them up and made her way to their bedroom, hoping that Tony might have come back upstairs by the time she had changed. She even gave him a little more time by having a shower. When, half an hour later, she emerged from the bedroom and Jarvis reported that Tony was still working, something inside her snapped.

She stomped down the stairs, barefoot and dressed only in her bathrobe, angrily punched in her key code and heaved the door open.

And then her anger, or her frustration, or whatever the hell it was she was feeling vanished as if someone had flicked a switch. Tony was leaning back on his desk, drink in hand, gazing at what looked to be a half finished crib. There was a small plastic bag with a couple of bolts in and a thin instruction book lying on the floor in front of it. Anything Pepper had been about to say died in her throat.

"What's my day like tomorrow?" Tony asked, jolting Pepper's brain.

"Um, you don't have any appointments until next week." She said softly. "I rescheduled everything so we could have time to…recover."

Tony was silent for a moment, and then he drained the rest of his drink, settling it with a clink onto the desk behind him and circling it to sit at his computer. "Cancel the cancellations, I should get back to work." He caught her eyes briefly and then started doing whatever the hell it was he was doing on his computer.

"No." Pepper said. Tony stopped tapping but didn't look up.

"What?"

"You heard me." Pepper said, lifting her chin and staring him down.

"Pepper, I need to work, to get back into the swing of things." He sighed and began typing again.

"No, what you need to do is rest, to heal." She growled, her anger creeping back up again.

"I'm not the one who had surgery." He muttered.

Pepper scowled. "I'm not the one behaving like everything's completely normal."

"I need to work, Pepper." Something beeped behind him and he stood up.

"God damn it Tony!" Pepper raised her voice. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even realise what you're doing?"

"Contrary to popular belief I know exactly what I'm doing." He snapped. "I'm trying to work through this the best way I know fucking how." He turned away from her and went to check on one of the machines.

"By pushing me away?" she saw Tony stiffen and she felt tears stinging her eyes. "Tony, this is completely different to when your parents died. I'm sorry I couldn't protect our son-"

"Don't you dare." He span around, a furious look in his eyes. "Don't you fucking dare blame yourself for this, this is not your fault."

"Then why won't you look at me?" Pepper yelled.

"How can I?" he threw back, his own tears streaming down his cheeks. "How the hell can I have done what I did and then face you like its not my fault?"

Pepper stared at him. "Tony, this isn't your fault."

"Yes it is!" he walked up to her. "I'm responsible for the death of our son and you keep looking at me like that, like you still love me."

"Of course I love you." She gasped, reaching out to softly stroke his face.

"See, that's the thing." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't think I can live looking at you everyday and wanting you to hate me." He opened his eyes and buried his face in the crook of her neck, completely melting into her. "I can't stand it, Pepper, I won't be able to make it."

Pepper felt his jagged breath on her neck and wrapped her arms around his neck to try and soothe him. "Tony, it's ok, we'll get through it, calm down." She pulled his head back and kissed his mouth tenderly. "I love you, it'll be ok." She kissed him again and he responded slowly. She tugged him backwards towards the couch and tried to make him forget.

* * *

Tony cracked open the heavy hospital door and peered inside. Bruce was sitting up in bed but his eyes were still closed. The empty food tray on the trolley beside him indicated that he'd not long since eaten, which meant he was more likely to be dozing than properly asleep. Tony stepped into the room and closed the door. The click of the catch roused Banner from his doze and he blinked, not quite sure what he was seeing.

"You ok buddy?" Tony asked softly, walking over to the chair beside the bed and sitting in it. Banner stared. "Bruce?"

"Tony? What…" he rubbed his eyes and stared again. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to make sure you were ok." Tony said. The genuine tone of his voice only confused Banner further.

"Why?" he gave Tony an incredulous look.

"Because I feel responsible."

Banner felt sick. He leant back on his pillows and closed his eyes. "Betty told me what happened." He whispered. Tony remained silent. "I'm-"

"If you say 'I'm sorry' I'll kill you." Tony snapped. Banner's eyes flew open and Tony continued before he could interrupt. "I am just as much to blame here as you think you are, so don't give me that bullshit, just listen to me." He leant forward and gripped Bruce's forearm. "I want you to come to SHIELD."

"Stark, I don't think-"

"I said listen." Tony said sternly. "I said I'm as much to blame here, so here's me putting things right. There will come a day, Banner, when I won't be there to stop you, when no one will be able to stop you. Do you understand?" Banner nodded. "I don't want anyone else to die because of us. SHIELD have the best doctors and scientists around. Even if they can't make a cure, they can sure as hell stabilize you."

Tony stood up and ran his hand through his hair. "If for no one else, do this for Betty." He walked towards the door. He stopped once it was open and turned back. "I'm going away. I don't know how long for, but I'll be assisting SHIELD with a new project they're running. I'll see you there." His tone of voice didn't seem to give Banner a choice in the matter, and then he was gone, closing the door softly behind him.

* * *

_Pepper,_

_This is the worst way I know of to do this, but I feel like if I did it face to face, I wouldn't be able to go through with it, and despite what I know you think, I have to do this._

_Since the accident, I feel like I've completely lost my mind. I'm in so much pain I can't even think straight. I have nightmares pretty much every night since you came out of the hospital, it's killing me inside, it feels as if the shrapnel in my chest simultaneously shot into my heart, and you've been so comforting and supportive. You're there to hold me and talk me down, and that's what scares me the most._

_Like I told you last night, you should hate me for what I did to us, to you. You should have left me. You should want me dead. But you still love me, and that's the thing I can't understand. What I did was unforgivable. I tried to protect you and I ended up doing the complete reverse. Every time I look at you, all I see is unconditional love, and it's wrong. I need you to hate me. I need you to shun my touch, but you won't do it._

_I'm sorry to put this burden on you, but I'm making you the new C.E.O. effective immediately, I need someone I know I can trust to carry my work on. I'll be keeping in touch with the company every now and then through Jarvis. I've also left you the mansion, it was your home before all this and it always will be._

_I'm going away. I don't know where to or for how long, but hopefully long enough to let you go, and for you to let me go too. I know in my heart that it's best for us. There will never be anyone else for me, Pepper, but I can't carry on seeing your face every day and wanting you to hate me. I can't stand it._

_I love you. I always will._

_Tony._

What little was left of Pepper's heart broke away from her soul and splintered. The oxygen around her felt too thick to breathe, the leather couch she lay upon felt like granite on her skin. Her entire world had fallen apart, and nothing would ever feel right again.

**End.**

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* * *

**

Regarding the whole Twilight/Saw thing for those who are still baffled: basically, in Saw III or IV (I forget which one, it's been a while since I've seen it) the Jigsaw's wife miscarries a baby because she gets hit in the stomach with a door, and thus spawns the marvellous vigilante justice of the entire series of films, and in New Moon (second book/film of the Twilight Saga) Edward tries to save Bella from his family (she cut herself and they all went ape shit over a tiny speck of blood) by pushing her back, and basically injures her even more, and then goes all angsty and depressed thinking he'll hurt her again. Yes, my brain took these two plots, smashed them together and created the last thirteen chapters.

Once again, thank you so much for reading, and watch this space for the sequel.


	14. Author's Note

Not an update, just a little A/N to let you know if you weren't already aware that I have posted a sequel to this story which is now complete! It's called Snuff, and you can find it on my page.

Thanks!

Smoose


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